Lining Yao, an Assistant Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department, UC Berkeley, directs the university’s Morphing Matter Lab and has courtesy appointments in CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Yao will give a talk. “Morphing Matter,” for the UC Davis Department of Design’s Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design on Feb. 5 at 4:30 p.m.

The presentation is at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Free and open to the public, a light reception follows the talk.

In her talk, Yao explores the evolution of design into a cross-disciplinary practice that integrates “morphing matter” – reconfigurable, bio-derived materials — to address ecological and technological challenges. She argues that future designers must act as catalysts for transformation by navigating both physical and digital worlds to create sustainable, intelligent and responsive systems. 

Yao’s research explores the positive impact of active and morphing materials on sustainable design across different scales and contexts. Her work focuses on discovering and studying morphing material mechanisms, as well as algorithms for computational design and fabrication pipelines. Yao has published in both computer science and physical science venues and has received nine Best Paper or Best Talk Awards and nominations from premier conferences in Human-Computer Interaction. Her journal papers have been featured as cover stories in Nature, Science Advances, and Advanced Materials Technologies.

Her work has been widely featured in popular media outlets, including The New York Times, Wired, Scientific American, Fast Company, National Geographic, and BBC, among others. Yao received her Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab in 2017 and spent her time as a tenure-tracked faculty member at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University before joining UC Berkeley. She is the co-founder of the MorphingMatter4Girls Initiative, a Wired UK fellow, and an appointed instructor in eco-design by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Supported through an endowment provided by the Carlos and Andrea Alberini Family Foundation, the speaker series brings renowned innovators and thinkers in design to campus to inspire students and encourage community engagement and learning. The talk is organized by the UC Davis Department of Design and co-sponsored by the Manetti Shrem Museum.

The Department of Design is part of the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis.