Invited Speakers

Over the last two decades, supramolecular chemistry has seen remarkable advancements and has emerged as a powerful tool for designing dynamic materials. While its impact is well recognized in related research fields, its full potential in solid-state soft materials remains underexplored. Our group has been working to unlock the potential of supramolecular chemistry in soft materials. In this presentation, I will discuss our insights and approaches to developing mechanically robust polymer networks and polymer composites.

Flexible and printable sensors are rapidly evolving from standalone transducers into complete, body-worn systems, yet manufacturability remains a central bottleneck: reliably integrating soft substrates, functional nanomaterial inks, microstructured transducers, interconnects/antennas, microfluidics, and biocompatible packaging—while keeping the process scalable, repeatable, and low cost. In this invited talk, I will present an advanced-manufacturing toolbox that combines multimaterial extrusion 3D printing, accessible planar/printed electronics, and data/physics-guided process optimization to enable integrated wireless, battery-free and self-powered wearable bioelectronic systems. 

Aerosol jet printing (AJP) is an additive technique for fabricating thin-film, flexible electronics. The technique excels at printing high-resolution patterns from diverse constituent materials, including metallic nanoparticles, conducting polymers, and carbon nanomaterials. The technique relies on the aerosolization of liquid inks, where the aerosol can then be subsequently directly deposited using a carrier gas which is focused using a concentric sheath gas. This talk will first introduce the fundamentals of AJP, followed by a brief discussion of how the controllable parameters affect the spatially resolved droplet flow-rate, which is measured using a novel dual-pulse laser technique. 

Recent advances in soft bioelectronics have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in personalized, bio-integrated healthcare systems. A primary challenge in this field arises from the mechanical mismatch between conventional rigid electronic devices and the soft, dynamic nature of human organs. To address this challenge, novel materials for soft, stretchable electronic devices have been developed, offering mechanical and chemical properties more compatible with in vivo cellular environments. 

Assistive wearable devices enhance human performance and accessibility, but their widespread adoption remains limited by bulky, rigid, and tethered power supplies. This talk presents recent advances in textile-integrated energy harvesting that leverage user-derived energy sources to enable fully soft, self-sufficient wearable systems. First, energy harvesting from human motion is enabled through a textile-based pneumatic platform that extracts energy directly from foot strike during walking. A soft pump embedded within the insole converts mechanical work into pressurized air, which is stored in a wearable textile reservoir, achieving power outputs approaching 3 W with conversion efficiencies exceeding 20% while directly generating pneumatic energy compatible with pressure-driven soft actuators. 

Wearable human–machine interfaces (HMIs) often face a fundamental trade-off between signal fidelity and the need for frequent, user-specific calibration. Surface electromyography (sEMG) is susceptible to impedance-related noise and electrode variability, while camera-based approaches degrade under occlusion and changing illumination. This talk presents SOMA, a wearable HMI that fuses high-density optical myography with self-supervised learning (SSL) to enable robust, data-efficient intent decoding. Distinct from electrical or vision sensors, SOMA directly images muscle hemodynamics with high spatial resolution, allowing discrimination of individual finger flexors with specificity difficult to achieve using sEMG or cameras. 

As conventional scaling approaches approach physical limits, advanced packaging has emerged as a critical enabler for future electronic systems. In particular, panel-level packaging (PLP) promises a cost-effective and high-throughput path to large-area integration, yet widespread adoption is constrained by the dramatic increase in cost, material use, and process complexity associated with traditional electroplating-based redistribution layer (RDL) formation and dielectric lamination as panel size grows.

Stretchable electronics are redefining how we interface with the human body, transforming rigid circuits into soft, wireless systems that move, bend, and heal with living tissue. Advances in materials science, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing methods now enable high-performance electronic platforms with soft, flexible architectures that mount gently on the skin to provide continuous, clinical-quality measurements of physiological status. Yet, as these systems operate within complex biological environments, understanding how mechanical deformation reshapes their electromagnetic behavior becomes essential. 

Our understanding of the brain’s pathophysiology relies on discoveries in neuroscience fueled by sophisticated bioelectronics enabling visualization and manipulation of neural circuits at multiple spatial and temporal resolutions. In parallel, to facilitate clinical translation of advanced materials, devices, and technologies, all components of bioelectronic devices have to be considered. Organic electronics offer a unique approach to device design, due to their mixed ionic/electronic conduction, mechanical flexibility, enhanced biocompatibility, and capability for drug delivery. We design, develop, and characterize conformable, stretchable organic electronic devices based on conducting polymer-based electrodes, particulate electronic composites, high-performance transistors, conformable integrated circuits, and ion-based data communication. 

Organic mixed ionic and electronic charge conductors offer a unique toolbox for establishing electrical communication with biological systems. In this talk, I will introduce this rising class of materials for bioelectronic interfacing and explain how their multifunctionality can be harnessed to develop next-generation conformable bioelectronic sensors operating at aqueous electrolyte and tissue interfaces. I will highlight one application where organic electrochemical transistors that rely on these soft conductors are used to detect biochemical molecules from sweat while recording and analyzing electrophysiology signals. Drawing from our experience with patient samples, I will address potential shortcomings of proof-of-concept biosensor platforms and explore strategies for overcoming these challenges.