Distinguished Lecture Series: Yonggang Huang

Join us for a Cockrell School of Engineering Endowed Lecture co-hosted by the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and presented by Yonggang Huang, Achenbach Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University.

A reception will follow the lecture. 

Abstract

Bioelastic State Recovery for Haptic Sensory Substitution

The rich set of mechanoreceptors found in human skin offers a versatile engineering interface for transmitting information and eliciting perceptions, potentially serving a broad range of applications in patient care and other important industries. Targeted multisensory engagement of these afferent units, however, faces persistent challenges, especially for wearable, programmable systems that need to operate adaptively across the body. Here we present a miniaturized electromechanical structure that, when combined with skin as an elastic, energy-storing element, supports bistable, self-sensing modes of deformation. Targeting specific classes of mechanoreceptors as the basis for distinct, programmed sensory responses, this haptic unit can deliver both dynamic and static stimuli, directed as either normal or shear forces. Systematic experimental and theoretical studies establish foundational principles and practical criteria for low-energy operation across natural anatomical variations in the mechanical properties of human skin. A wireless, skin-conformable haptic interface, integrating an array of these bistable transducers, serves as a high-density channel capable of rendering input from smartphone-based 3D scanning and inertial sensors. Demonstrations of this system include sensory substitution designed to improve the quality of life for patients with visual and proprioceptive impairments.

About the Speaker

Yonggang Huang is the Achenbach Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. He is interested in the mechanics of stretchable inorganic electronics and mechanics-guided deterministic 3D assembly, and has published more than 700 journal papers, including 16 in Science and 10 in Nature.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Society (London), the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Canada, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and four other academies in Europe and Canada. In 2024, the Society of Engineering Science established the Yonggang Huang Engineering Science Medal. In 2025, the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University established the John Rogers –Yonggang Huang Medal for Research Collaboration.  In the same year, the International Conference of Computational & Experimental Engineering Science established the John Rogers – Yonggang Huang Medal. He is the only tenured/tenure-track faculty member to have received the Cole-Higgings Teaching Award twice in the award’s history at Northwestern University. He is also the only foreign member to have served as chair of the election committee in the more than 360-year history of the Royal Society, London.