Ling’s research focuses on the mechanics of entangled and woven metamaterials, enabling materials that are simultaneously compliant, robust, and functionally responsive. Leveraging these frameworks, she aims to develop design principles for programmable soft material systems that can better conform, respond, and adapt to bodies, environments, and motion.
Ling Xu is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at MIT studying the mechanics of woven and compliant architected metamaterials in the Portela Research Group. Inspired by entangled matter such as polymer networks, biological systems, and textiles, her research investigates how complex mechanical behavior can be translated into design principles for metamaterials across scales.
Combining computational design, nonlinear mechanics, microscale fabrication, and in situ mechanical characterization, Ling studies how architecture can reconcile mechanical tradeoffs often considered incompatible, such as stiffness, stretchability, and toughness. She is interested in how the mechanics of entanglements can inform the design of material systems that not only demonstrate unprecedented structural performance, but are also tunable, functional, and intelligent. Through this work, she hopes to develop a mechanics foundation for human-centered wearable interfaces, functional fabrics, soft robotic systems, and other technologies that interact with human bodies and the physical world.
Prior to MIT, Ling received her BSE in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted research in the Sung Robotics Lab.