People
Current Members
Robert MacCurdy
Assistant Professor
Robert MacCurdy is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder where he leads the Matter Assembly Computation Lab (MACLab). He is developing new tools to automatically design and manufacture robots, and automated methods to study animal behavior in the wild. Rob did his PhD work with Hod Lipson at Cornell University and his postdoctoral work at MIT with Daniela Rus. Funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a Liebmann Fund fellowship, his doctoral work demonstrated systems capable of automatically assembling functional electromechanical devices, with the goal of printing robots that literally walk out of the printer. During this time he also showed how to create very low-cost, low power, and low-mass radiofrequency tags, and developed an automated tracking system based on time-of-flight measurements. He holds a B.A. in Physics from Ithaca College, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.S. and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.
Vidyacharan G. Venkata
PhD Student
Vidyacharan (VC) is a PhD student developing new materials for manufacturing soft robots and devices through multi-material inkjet printing. He works at the intersection of materials science and robotics to push machines towards the next stage of their evolution. He earned his M.S in Mechanical Engineering from CU Boulder in 2018 during which he co-authored multiple papers on HASEL soft actuators. Prior to that, he worked as a researcher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on developing flexible electrochemical sensors for toxic gas detection. He earned his B.Tech in Mechatronics in 2016 from SASTRA University, India.
Charles Wade
PhD Student
Charles works at the intersection of design, fabrication, and automation. Particularly, he is interested in developing novel methods that leverage additive manufacturing technology to automatically construct robotic systems. His current work focuses on a volumetric modeling framework for the design and verification of multi-material 3D-printed robots. Charles earned his B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Toledo in 2021. Before starting a PhD at CU, he was a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. There, he developed software and controls for large-scale 3D-printing systems. In his free time Charles likes hiking, backpacking, and fly fishing. You can often find him wading the nearby mountain streams in search of trout.
James Phillips
PhD Student
James has a background in electrical engineering and embedded systems. His research in Maclab is focused on the RF Biotracking Project. He is currently writing his thesis for his Master's degree in Technology, Cybersecurity, and Policy. In his spare time, James snowboards, runs, travels, and climbs an occasional 14er.
Patrick Cavanaugh
Incoming PhD Student
Patrick is an incoming PhD Student interested in the intersection of additive manufacturing and computational design to fully explore the design space enabled by AM with applications like mass customization and functional metamaterials. He's coming from Purdue University with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and has spent the last 2 years helping develop Purdue's Sports Engineering program. Patrick competed as a semi-pro triathlete for a short time and currently enjoys all things outside, cooking and looking after his plants.
Aaron Finch
Master's Student
Aaron is a master's student exploring multi-physics simulations to enable the computational design of complex structures for energy absorption. His work aims to facilitate efficient designs through spatially varied topology, materials, and geometry capable of handling a wide range of impact scenarios. Aaron earned his Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2019. In the interim, he served as an engineering officer in the U.S. Army, stationed in Italy. Outside the lab, he enjoys endurance sports, alpinism, rock climbing, and skiing.
Randolph Peterson
Master's Student
Randy is a Master's Thesis student working on automated and characterization testing of Soft Bending Actuators. His work aims to improve both manual and computational design of soft actuators optimized for their intended application. Randy received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University in 2021, and spends his free time reading, cooking, baking, and hiking.
Joey Passarello
Master's Student
Joey is a master's thesis student designing 3D printed metamaterials that mimic the mechanical properties of human tissue. His work will be used to create life-like printed human tissue simulators. Joey received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from UCLA in the spring of 2024, and enjoys a hands-on, iterative approach to solving engineering problems. In his free time, Joey enjoys backpacking, reading, skiing and grilling.
John Stewardson
Research Assistant
John obtained his Bachelor of Science in Engineering at the Technical University of Munich. He is interested in interdisciplinary problem solving with a focus on robotics. In his research he is utilizing simulations to automate the design optimization of multimaterial soft robotic grippers, under the guidance of Prof. MacCurdy. In his free time John likes to ski, play volleyball or soccer.
Ted Bruno
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ted is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder. Under the guidance of Dr. MacCurdy in the MacLab, he is conducting research on conductive polymers, focusing on understanding how strain influences electrical resistivity. Outside of his academic pursuits, Ted is an avid skier and climber who spends much of his free time exploring the outdoors.
Andrew Heck
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Andrew is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder. Under the guidence of Dr. MacCurdy, his work primarily focuses on multi-phase 3D printing and computational design; specifically, researching optimal designs of fully 3D printable bellows to maximize lifespan and print quality. Outside of the MAClab Andrew is involved with CU’s under water robotics team, Colorado Robosub, and enjoys spending time outside hiking, biking, and climbing.
Julian Hansell
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Julian is a first-year undergraduate student majoring in Integrated Design Engineering with an emphasis in Mechanical Engineering. Under the guidance of Dr. MacCurdy and Charles he is researching design improvements for Pneumatic Network soft robotic actuators to increase their resistance to out-of-plane bending. He is also working with the HIRo Group at the University of Colorado Boulder to develop python integration for capacitive robotic skin, giving robots enhanced ability for sensing their surrounding. Outside of the lab Julian enjoys hiking, playing board games, and practicing his welding skills.
Alumni
Brandon Hayes
Brandon received a double major in biomedical engineering and microelectronics engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. There, his interests centered around microfluidics and multi-physics processes. After a few internships out west in Oregon, Brandon decided to head out to Colorado for grad school as well as the mountains. Brandon’s research focus is on combining additive manufacturing with microfluidics as well as understanding and applications of thermal bubble-driven micro-pumps for microfluidics. In his free time, Brandon can likely be found swimming, hiking, exploring, and biking around in the nearby mountains (with Flagstaff being his current favorite for a quick evening ride)
Lawrence Smith
Lawrence is a PhD student working on automated design of soft robots. He builds finite element and material point method models of continuum mechanics problems. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2014 and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado Boulder in 2019. In the interim period Lawrence worked at an engineering consulting firm designing numerical models to predict medical device performance. In his free time Lawrence enjoys running, frisbee golf, and playing 8-ball pool.
Travis Hainsworth
Travis used additive manufacturing to develop process that can create more complex soft robots. Through the use of additive manufacturing, designs and geometries that would be near impossible to create with conventional manufacturing methods are now easy to make. He is completing a PhD and he earned his M.S and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah. There he studied how emotive gaits could be applied to a quadrupedal robot. He is now a teaching professor at Western Colorado University.
Aaditya Pore
Aaditya is a second-year undergraduate student studying Aerospace Engineering at CU Boulder. Under the guidance of Lawrence and Dr. MacCurdy through the CU SPUR program, he is working on a test bench that will be able to test pneumatic actuators. Working with MATLAB and FDM manufacturing, his goal is to establish a test bench that can provide metrics of feedback including force exerted, pressure, resistance, flow rate, and bend angles, for actuators. Outside of the MacLab, Aadi is involved in the University of Colorado Student Government, currently serving as the Legislative Council President, and is a 3D Printing Student Assistant for the ATLAS Institute.
Celesse Myles
Celesse is a first year PhD student interested in the mobility of soft robotics. She is currently working as a research assistant. Her current work is focused on fabricating and testing soft actuators in an effort to standardize the testing process used to characterize various types of soft actuators. Celesse earned her B.S in Mechanical Engineering at CU Denver in 2022 while working remotely as a NASA Pathways intern at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland from 2020 to 2022. Celesse loves basketball and is a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan. She has completed two full marathons and completed a 50 mile ultramarathon in April 2022.
Ashton Croft
Ashton is a third year undergraduate Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder. His work is on investigating thermal inkjet resistors and their applications as microfluidic pumps and mixers for use in future lab-on-a-chip devices. Outside the lab, Ashton loves hiking, skiing, and driving classic cars.
Colin Smith
Colin Smith is a Mechanical Engineering MS student with a concentration in Robotics at the University of Colorado Boulder and an alum of California Polytechnic State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Colin’s research focuses on mechanical design automation through the use of evolutionary algorithms and optimization techniques with applications in multi-material 3D printed soft robots. Colin’s other research activities center around the application of mechanical design and simulation, electronics design, and embedded systems software development in the pursuit of advancing soft robotics technology.
Wangcong Xuan
I’m a Computer Science and Data Science undergraduate student at CU Boulder. I was working on the server construction, DNS and software deployment. It’s really nice to have the chance work in MaC Lab. I had a wonderful time working with Lawrence, Lev in the lab. We are responsible for website construction and software deployment together. During this period, Lawrence taught me a lot of MATLAB skills and I also learned a considerable part of the front-end and back-end technologies from the actual programming experience.
Subhraneel Sarkar
Subhraneel is a Mechanical Engineering Masters student interested in fabrication and FE analysis of soft actuators. He is currently writing his thesis on print-in-place pneumatic position sensing actuators. He completed his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology, India in 2020. He has also been a part of Colorado Space Grant Consortium (CSGC GLEE team) and developed components for LunaSats-II for efficient deployment on Lunar Surface. He also has a passion for soccer and played for the CU Men's Clubs in 2021.
Marcus Tsuei
Marcus is a visiting undergraduate studying Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. His work at MACLAB consists of designing storage and recovery systems for 3D printing filament. Marcus enjoys looking into the intersections of cutting edge technologies and finding their applications in untraditional industries.
Lev Polonsky
Bio Under Development
James Alex Hale
Under the supervision and guidance of Dr. MacCurdy, Travis, and Lawrence, I worked with another undergrad to design, develop, create, assemble, and present a modular cyclic loading testing fixture. The fixture was to quantitatively assess lifespan and drive ongoing material and geometric optimization of multi-material additive-manufactured (MMAM) hydraulic bellows used in single-print soft material robotics. Performed design proposals and presentations, CAD design, mechanical assembly, electrical assembly, component creation and procurement, microprocessor coding, team collaboration. Continued but did not complete a similar modular test fixture for fatigue analysis of 3D-printed ball bearings.
Sebastian Alexander
Sebastian’s time in the MAC Lab was spent supporting Travis Hainsworth’s research and development of the print-in-place, self-sensing pneumatic actuators. This included gathering data from the integrated strain gauges, characterizing their behavior, and investigating alternative materials for use in the strain gauges. Working closely with the actuators and FDM machines that bring them to life sparked an interest in mechatronics, furthered by his senior project, classwork, and personal projects. Since graduating in May 2020, Sebastian has been working in commercial product design and development, and now works as a mechanical engineer at Roccor, a local company developing state of the art deployable space structures.
Lawson Nerenberg
Lawson is currently a Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science undergrad student at CU Boulder. He utilizes experience in machine learning to research novel methods for generative design, and works towards involvement in hybrid material robotic control and design.
Xavier Bell
I have always been fascinated with how things worked. Whether it was the inner workings of a pen, or what made the wind blow, I wanted to learn about it. I now am most intrigued by 3D printing and aerospace engineering. My ideal world is one in which we can use both fields of engineering harmoniously. Xavier has moved on to pursue his engineering goals at MIT.
Brady Kopec
Brady is currently a second year undergraduate student of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is excited to work with the MacCurdy Lab team in order to develop voxelization software. He looks forward to learning from his team and developing his skills as a researcher and engineer.
Zach Jordan
Zach is a lover of learning, who likes working in a multidisciplinary environment with the challenge of solving new and unknown problems. He is especially interested in using novel 3D printing methods for robotics fabrication. Outside of engineering, he loves the outdoors and extreme mountain sports and is a volunteer first responder/rescue technician for Boulder County.
Sean Connelly
Sean graduated with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado - Boulder. He worked on designing a verification software for volumetric modeling using voxels and is interested in design automation processes. Today, Sean is a Mechanical Design Engineer at Boulder Engineer Studio working in consultant design for everything from consumer products to industrial applications.