News

Prof. Ashok Midha, the “Father of Compliant Mechanisms” passed away on December 6, 2023. His work and example will continue to make an impact on the field of compliant mechanisms. He was the PhD advisor of the CMR’s Larry Howell, who wrote a personal tribute for Professor Midha, which can be found here:

In Fall 2023, several students from the CMR organized a lecture series of kinematics experts from around the world as part of an advanced kinematics course. The lab hosted Volkert van der Wijk, Mike McCarthy, Todd Nelson, Alden Yellowhorse, Mark Plecnik, Robert Lang, and Pierre Larochelle. It was a magnificent learning opportunity and resulted in several awesome prototypes. The lecture series also provided the foundation for an advanced kinematics course that may be taught at BYU in the future.

The Compliant Mechanisms Research Group at BYU works with NASA, Penn State, and MMA Design to create a deployable lidar telescope. By using origami mechanisms, their aim is to produce a telescope more compact and cost effective than ever before.

We recently had the chance to collaborate with YouTuber Mark Rober in order to create the world’s smallest NERF gun. Watch the video here! This was an incredible project to be a part of, both because of the challenging design problems and the opportunity to work with Mark Rober and his team.

Brigham Young University (BYU) announced that Professor Spencer P. Magleby has received the Abraham O. Smoot Citizenship Award during its annual university conference general session, Monday, August 28, 2023. This prestigious award is presented annually to one university faculty member who has demonstrated sustained service and personal sacrifice to the BYU community.

Several CMR students and faculty attended the International Design Technical Conference in Boston, MA on August 29. Students presented work related to several technical papers, including deployable space arrays for LIDAR telescopes, surrogate folds for origami-based design include graphite fiber hinges, origami-based design of furniture for childcare and optimized structures for origami flasher patterns. Congratulations to presenters Bethany Parkinson, Philip Klocke, Ivy Running, Katie Varela, Hunter Pruett, and Jared Hunter.

Our lab was fortunate enough to host Dr. Zhong You, Professor in the Department of Engineering Science of Oxford University and a Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College. Dr. You worked with our students and gave a colloquium presentation on some of the recent projects he has been working on.

This year five of our students got to present at the Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research! We shared our research on deployable arrays for use in space telescope applications, cross frame thickness accommodation for origami...

The relationship between bending beams and folded paper allows for engineers to design new ways of compacting and deploying the mechanisms of the future.

The Naked Scientists is a British scientific news site that specializes in podcasts. They interviewed Dr. Howell this January, and published the article January 14th, 2020...

This week, four of our students got to present at the Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research! We shared our research on adapting origami principles to improve performance of disposable incontinence products, and on designing origami-based furniture. Congratulations to Diana Bolaños, Bridget Beatson, Corinne Jackson, and Bethany Parkinson.

On Jan 13, 2019, researchers from BYU published a paper on Developable Mechanisms in Science Robotics. This research was done by the Compliant Mechanisms Research Group.

In a thrilling YouTube video, Veritasium shows Dr. Lang's mathematical approach to origami and explores the engineering applications of origami. The video explains how origami--especially thick origami--can give structures beneficial motions unattainable by other means. Dr. Howell shows examples of origami in engineering created by the CMR, which include an expandable catheter, a collapsible bulletproof barrier, and deployable forceps.

In his YouTube video, Veritasium has an interactive interview with Dr. Howell. Veritasium invents the "8 P's of Compliant Mechanisms," which explain the benefits of compliant mechanisms over other types of mechanisms.

Dr. Magleby was interviewed by BYUradio as part of their show "Top of Mind" about the work done with origami for medical devices and space applications. Here is a link to the episode: http://www.byuradio.org/episode/bab9f1f6-559a-4582-a83c-42ad862d886b/top-of-mind-with-julie-rose-power-of-sports-origami?playhead=5131&autoplay=true

Dr. Howell, Dr. Magleby, and many students of the CMR lab are featured in the National Science Foundation's 63rd episode of NSF Science Now. The episode discusses developable mechanisms, or mechanisms that can be integrated into the surface of a curved structure. While Dr. Magleby mentions potential applications of developable mechanisms in the Iron Man suit, Dr. Howell mentions applications in the medical and space industry.

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli demonstrates the use of innovative origami designs created by CMR engineers

The Mechanical Design Collective was honored to hear from Dr. Robert Lang for the group’s inaugural colloquium event held in the Karl G. Maeser Building lecture hall. The title of Dr. Lang’s talk was “From Paper to Steel: Origami in Other Media” and spoke to the group about his journey in designing origami with paper to creating larger-than-life-size origami designs and creations. The colloquium included a discussion about how the lessons learned can influence the group’s research.