Sameh Tawfick

About

Sameh Tawfick is a Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, with a background that includes a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan obtained in 2012, and earlier degrees from Cairo University in Egypt. His academic positions include being a Professor at Illinois since August 2024, with previous roles as an Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at the same institution, and a visiting professorship at the University of Cambridge. Tawfick's research interests encompass actuators and robotic mechanisms, carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, additive manufacturing of polymeric and composite materials, data-driven manufacturing and machine learning, nanomechanics and nanomanufacturing, as well as solid mechanics and materials. His work involves developing innovative solutions in these areas, contributing to the advancement of manufacturing, materials science, and robotics.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Simulation
• Artificial Intelligence
• Physics
• Mechanical engineering
• Engineering
• Emergency medicine
• Mechanics
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science

Selected publications

• Unipolar stroke, electroosmotic pump carbon nanotube yarn muscles

  Science · 2021 · 212 citations

  Success in making artificial muscles that are faster and more powerful and that provide larger strokes would expand their applications. Electrochemical carbon nanotube yarn muscles are of special interest because of their relatively high energy conversion efficiencies. However, they are bipolar, meaning that they do not monotonically expand or contract over the available potential range. This limits muscle stroke and work capacity. Here, we describe unipolar stroke carbon nanotube yarn muscles i…

  DOI

• Insect-scale jumping robots enabled by a dynamic buckling cascade

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023 · 68 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Millions of years of evolution have allowed animals to develop unusual locomotion capabilities. A striking example is the legless-jumping of click beetles and trap-jaw ants, which jump more than 10 times their body length. Their delicate musculoskeletal system amplifies their muscles' power. It is challenging to engineer insect-scale jumpers that use onboard actuators for both elastic energy storage and power amplification. Typical jumpers require a combination of at least two actuator mechanism…

  DOI

• Emergency ventilator for COVID-19

  PLoS ONE · 2020 · 45 citations

  The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the world in 2020 by spreading at unprecedented rates and causing tens of thousands of fatalities within a few months. The number of deaths dramatically increased in regions where the number of patients in need of hospital care exceeded the availability of care. Many COVID-19 patients experience Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), a condition that can be treated with mechanical ventilation. In response to the need for mechanical ventilators, designed and t…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fast 3D printing of fine, continuous, and soft fibers via embedded solvent exchange

  Nature Communications · 2025-01-20 · 18 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Nature uses fibrous structures for sensing and structural functions as observed in hairs, whiskers, stereocilia, spider silks, and hagfish slime thread skeins. Here, we demonstrate multi-nozzle printing of 3D hair arrays having freeform trajectories at a very high rate, with fiber diameters as fine as 1.5 µm, continuous lengths reaching tens of centimeters, and a wide range of materials with elastic moduli from 5 MPa to 3500 MPa. This is achieved via 3D printing by rapid solvent exchange in high…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Morphogenic Growth 3D Printing

  Advanced Materials · 2025-03-10 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Inspired by nature's morphogenesis, a new 3D printing process –growth printing (GP)– takes advantage of a self‐propagating curing front to produce 3D polymeric parts following a growth‐like development plan. The propagation of the curing front is driven by the exothermic polymerization of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD), which transforms the liquid resin into a stiff polymer as it propagates at 1 mm s −1 . GP is triggered when a heated initiator contacts the uncured liquid resin in an open con…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Carbon Nanotube Textile Fabrication by Programmable Self-Assembly

  NSF · $300k · 2018–2023

Frequent coauthors

• A. John Hart

  93 shared

• Michaël De Volder

  University of Cambridge

  87 shared

• Kaihao Zhang

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  43 shared

• Mitisha Surana

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  38 shared

• Sei Jin Park

  34 shared

• Alexander F. Vakakis

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  23 shared

• Darren Adams

  21 shared

• Elif Ertekin

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  20 shared

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering

  University of Michigan

  2012

Awards & honors

• Ralph A. Andersen Faculty Scholar

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Jeffrey S. Mooreh-130
• Steve Marenh-90
• Ying Diaoh-60