Division of Integrative Systems and DesignHKUST
RMDLABRobotics and Material Design LabPHYSICAL PRINCIPLES · ROBOTIC POSSIBILITIES

RESEARCH

Understand. Create. Solve.

Three starting points across the science-engineering spectrum. A project may begin in one place and move through all three.

Resolve the physics research example

01 / Understand

Resolve the physics

We build experiments in which the important variables can be changed and the internal state can be observed. Models then help distinguish competing explanations and determine what can be generalized.

StoriesMagnetic friction · Magnetic cilia

Build a new capability research example

02 / Create

Build a new capability

We redesign interactions, materials and mechanisms to open a new design space. A capability matters when we can explain the principle that enables it and the conditions under which it remains useful.

StoriesMagnetic quadrupoles · Artificial microtubules · Counterfactual rewards

Work from a real constraint research example

03 / Solve

Work from a real constraint

We begin with an engineering or biomedical bottleneck, reduce it to a measurable physical problem and evaluate the solution against the reference that matters for that application.

StoriesMitochondrial biopsy · MaSoChains · Magnetic separation