The National Science Foundation has selected our group’s proposal CAREER: Multiscale Mechanics of Highly Deformable Strain-Gradient Electric Generators for the NSF CAREER Award.
The project develops theory and simulation tools to understand how strain-gradient effects, finite deformation, and electromechanical coupling come together in soft polymeric generators — and how those mechanisms can be harnessed to design new flexible energy-harvesting materials. Many thanks to the students and collaborators whose work over the last few years made this possible.