Faculty

Carmel Majidi’s career mission is to discover materials, hardware architectures, and fabrication methods that allow robots and machines to behave like soft biological organisms, and be safe for contact with humans. The aim is to replace the bulky and rigid hardware in existing robots with soft, lightweight, and deformable technologies that match the functionality of natural biological tissue. Currently, his group is focused on filled-elastomer composites and soft microfluidic systems that exhibit unique combinations of mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties and can function as “artificial” skin, nervous tissue, and muscle for soft robotics and wearables. He’s particularly interested in approaches that are practical from a rapid prototyping and robotics implementation perspective. This includes efforts to enable robust mechanical and electrical interfacing between soft-matter systems and conventional microelectronics and hardware.

Office
A08 Scaife Hall
Phone
412.268.2492
Fax
412.268.3348
Email
cmajidi@andrew.cmu.edu
Google Scholar
Carmel Majidi
Websites
Soft Machines Lab

Soft & Stretchable Computing Materials

What Inspired You to Become an Engineer

Electronic Tattoos for Wearable Computing: Stretchable, Robust, and Inexpensive

Self-Healing Electrical Material

Engineering new materials for wearable computing

Soft Machines: New Classes of Materials for Next-Generation Wearable Devices

Education

2007 Ph.D., EECS, University of California, Berkeley

2001 BS, CEE, Cornell University

Media mentions


CMU Engineering

Engineering entrepreneurs find their way

When faculty and students in the College of Engineering create intellectual property, our culture supports their efforts to form startups.

Mechanical Engineering

Paleobionics: Dinosaurs are back

Carmel Majidi, Aaron Johnson, and Aja Mia Carter explain the intersection of paleontology, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

CMU Engineering

Carnegie Mellon core partner in new center to improve robot dexterity selected to receive up to $52 million

Carmel Majidi will lead a research thrust in a new multi-institutional collaboration to launch an NSF ERC dedicated to revolutionizing the ability of robots to amplify human labor.

CMU Engineering

First healthcare device powered by body heat made possible with liquid-based metals

Researchers address battery-life concerns with a new material system that can power a pulse ox with bodyheat alone.

Ars Technica

Majidi explains how robots can help with understanding ancient creatures

MechE’s Carmel Majidi explains how robots can help with understanding extinct ancient creatures.

Three new professorships in Mechanical Engineering

Three new professorships were announced in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

PopSci

LeDuc and Majidi’s new soft robot highlighted in PopSci

MechE’s Philip LeDuc and Carmel Majidi have developed a new soft robot inspired by a prehistoric sea creature, which was featured in Popular Science. Pleurocystitids, a precursor to the present-day invertebrates, had tail-like structures that allowed them to move underwater easily.

CMU Engineering

450-million-year-old organism finds new life in Softbotics

Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitids, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem.

BuiltIn

Majidi talks about shape-shifting robots

MechE’s Carmel Majidi talks to BuiltIn about shape-shifting robots. “This technology introduces new capabilities to achieve robotic functions at the small scale in hard-to-reach places,” he says.

Communications of the ACM

Majidi explains importance of soft robotics

MechE’s Carmel Majidi explains the impact soft robotics, such as exoskeletons, artificial skins, and flexible electronics, will have on society.

Pittsburgh Business Times

Majidi wins 2023 Inno Fire Award from Pittsburgh Business Times

MechE’s Carmel Majidi has been awarded the 2023 Inno Fire Award for Trailblazing Innovators from the Pittsburgh Business Times.

CMU Engineering

Scalable manufacturing unlocks potential of soft electronics

New research from Burak Ozdoganlar, Carmel Majidi, and Kadri Burga Ozutemiz seeks to develop a scalable manufacturing method that combines the best of quality and quantity on a miniature scale, with the potential to reimagine how wearable medical devices are made.