Our research sits at the intersection of additive manufacturing, architected materials, and computational design. We develop fabrication processes that expand the design space and enhance structural complexity, material versatility, and throughput in 3D printing. We combine numerical modeling, mathematical optimization, and machine learning with human creativity and bioinspiration to systematically explore and realize novel designs. The results are (meta)materials, structures, and processes with outstanding properties and new functionality.
This approach has enabled us to precisely control fiber alignment in composite materials; fabricate lightweight structures that overcome the traditional trade-off between strength and toughness; design smart textiles that autonomously adapt to environmental changes; build active lattices that seamlessly switch from hard to soft; and manufacture soft robotic walkers that achieve record-breaking speeds when crawling off the print platform, among many other examples. Occasionally, curiosity leads us into uncharted areas—such as exploring how an African bird transports water over tens of miles to its young. Our work has been published in journals such as Advanced Materials, PNAS, and Nature, and has received worldwide coverage from media outlets including The Boston Globe, The Times, TechCrunch, Forbes, New Scientist, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, NBC, and BBC.
Looking ahead, we will continue to build on the symbiosis among these often-decoupled research areas and apply our capabilities to advance state-of-the-art technologies for social good.
Explore our Featured Projects below and Publications for more.
How can we utilize machine intelligence in the development of materials, structures, and processes with new functionalities and outstanding properties?
3D printers can create a huge variety of shapes, usually deposited layer by layer using a single material. Creating objects made from several materials is possible, but switching between the different printable substances has so far been a slow process. Now, a new printhead co-developed by the Mueller Lab allows for rapid 3D printing of detailed objects with multiple materials.
We co-developed a rotational multimaterial 3D printing platform capable of creating helical filaments with precise orientation and composition control. The platform allows fabrication of helical structures with programmable helix angles, layer thickness, and interfacial areas between multiple materials within a given voxel. Applications include functional artificial muscles and hierarchical lattices with local stiffness control.
With high resolution microscopes and 3D technology, the Mueller Lab and collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology captured an unprecedented view of feathers from the desert-dwelling Sandgrouse, showcasing the singular architecture of their feathers and revealing for the first time how they can hold so much water.
Our adaptive nozzle tackles the challenge of balancing high resolution and speed in extrusion-based 3D printing by enabling dynamic adjustments to the nozzle's diameter and shape during the printing process. This innovation overcomes the inherent speed-resolution tradeoff, a key limitation in the scalability and industrial adoption of 3D printing.