SMART-Lab
Smart Materials for Advanced Robotic Technologies
Principal Investigator
Hamed Shahsavan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Education
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PhD, University of Waterloo, 2017
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MASc, University of Waterloo, 2012
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BSc, Sharif University of Technology, 2009
Appointments
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Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo , Canada (2020-present)
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NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany (2017-2020)
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Visiting Scholar, Tampere University, Finland (2018)
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Visiting Scholar, Kent State University, USA (2015-2017)
Dr. Hamed Shahsavan is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering and nanotechnology from the University of Waterloo in 2017. In his graduate studies, Dr. Shahsavan's research was focused on the fabrication and characterization of bioinspired micro/nanostructured surfaces and their implications in fundamental studies of contact mechanics, and interfacial phenomena, such as adhesion, friction, and wetting. Fascinated by the rapidly growing fields of soft robotics and smart materials, he moved to Stuttgart in Germany, to embark on his postdoctoral research as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. In this period, he mainly focused on the synthesis of different types of liquid crystalline elastomers, networks and gels to deploy them as shape-change programmable materials in soft robots and devices at millimeter to micrometer scale. During his PhD studies, Dr. Shahsavan was a visiting scholar in the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, OH, USA. He was also a visiting scientist in the Smart Photonic Materials (SPM) research group at the University of Tampere in Finland. His current research interests revolve around the development of a variety of soft, stimuli-responsive, and programmable materials, and different fabrication methods for the manufacturing of small-scale mobile robots and devices.
Research Associates
Dr. Azin Adibi
Postdoctoral Fellow
Azin received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2023. Her Ph.D. research was focused on the characterization and application development of enzymatically polymerized and nanostructured polysaccharides and exploring the possibility of replacing petroleum-based polymers with environmental-friendly polymers.
Negin Bouzari
Research Associate
Negin received her B.Sc. in Polymer Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran, Iran) in 2020. She has previously worked on modeling and analyzing different types of spiral dies used in blown film extrusion. She received her MASc from University of Waterloo in 2023 and her research was focused on self-healing, programmable hydrogels for soft robotic applications.
Yasaman Maddah
PhD Student
Yasaman has received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Polymer Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology in 2019. Her master’s project was based on synthesizing a new hyper-branched structure of polyolefins and its subsequent rheological characterization. She currently works on synthesis and characterization of novel liquid crystal elastomers as her Ph.D. project.
Ramon Santiago Herrera Restrepo
Visiting PhD Student
Ramon is a visiting Ph.D. student from the University of Barcelona under the supervision of Josep Puigmartí and Jordi Ignes. He received his BSc in Chemistry, and MSc in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the University of Barcelona. His research interests include the development of microfluidic devices mimicking blood vessels, and colloidal transport for medical applications. His research experience has been focused on the formulation of emulsions to encapsulate chromonic liquid crystals, the transport of colloidal particles in anisotropic fluids, and the control of coagulation to create model blood clots. Currently, he is a visiting student at the SMART-LAB to develop novel robots based on anisotropic gels.
Negar Rajabi
Research Assistant
Negar received her master's degree in Materials Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in 2019. Her master project was based on the synthesis and characterization of an adhesive and injectable nanocomposite hydrogel as a potential surgical sealant. She currently works on stimuli-responsive smart materials.
Sahad Vasanji
MASc Student
Sahad is currently a nanotechnology engineering student. He has previously worked as a co-op researcher at the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science on bionic noses, and at Harvard University on designing stimuli-responsive materials.
Matthew Scarfo
Research Assistant
Matthew is an incoming MASc student in Chemical Engineering, currently finishing his undergraduate in Nanotechnology Engineering. His research experiences have involved the formulation, characterization, and reverse engineering of composites, such as CNTs inks and commercial plastics.
Irving Hafed Tejedor
Research Assistant
Irving Hafed Tejedor is a future graduate student in the Chemical Engineering program at the University of waterloo. Irving earned his BASc in Industrial Chemical Technology in the university of Panama in 2022. His research experiences have involved in the dentification of synthetic sweetener methods by HPLC in a flavor company.
Undergraduate Students
Juman Amro
Undergraduate RA
Juman is a 2B nanotechnology engineering student. She has previously worked as a software developer for AppCentrica Inc. where she contributed to an AI-integrated mental health app. She's working on the synthesis and characterization of LCEs.
Cole Fredericks
Undergraduate RA
Cole Fredericks is currently an undergraduate student in the Chemical Engineering program at the University of Waterloo. His research experiences have involved the development and characterization of commercial thermoplastic and protective nanoceramic coating formulations.
Edward Hong
Undergraduate RA
Edward Hong is a second-year Nanotechnology Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. His current research involves the characterization of hydrogels for small-scale soft robots.