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Welcome to my homepage! I am Wenzhong Yan (颜文忠), an upcoming Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis (starting March 2026). Currently I am a postdoctoral researcher at Yale, working with Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA ECE, working with Ankur Mehta and Jonathan Hopkins. At UC Davis, our research will focus on the development and deployment of next-generation soft robots and bio-inspired robots that integrate Mechanical Intelligence (MI) with Computational Intelligence (e.g., AI) to tackle critical societal challenges.

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I recently earned my Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in June 2023. My research interests broadly include origami and soft robotics, mechanical intelligence, structural instability, computational fabrication, smart materials and structures, and wearable devices.

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I am always interested in research collaborations, broadly in the fields of robotics, machine and mechanism design, and advanced manufacturing. Feel free to email me.

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The Yan Lab welcomes visiting scholars and research interns beginning in March 2026 or earlier.

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