Overvelde is the third group leader hired in the Designer Matter initiative, a recently started line of research at AMOLF. His Soft Robotic Matter group will focus on the design, fabrication and fundamental understanding of materials that are capable of autonomously adapting to – and even harnessing – variations in their environment. The group aims to uncover principles that help us understand how non-linearity and feedback can result in the emergence of complex – but useful – behavior in soft actuated systems. To this end, the group explores active and sensing elements to implement feedback capabilities and computation in soft architected materials, and uses a combination of computational, experimental and analytical tools. This line of research uniquely combines concepts from soft robotics and architected materials, providing new and exciting opportunities in the design of compliant structures and devices with highly non-linear behavior.
Between 2004 and 2012, Overvelde studied mechanical engineering at the Delft University of Technology, where he received both his BSc and MSc degrees cum laude. He will finish his PhD in applied mathematics at Harvard University under the direction of professor Katia Bertoldi at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in April. During his PhD, Overvelde focussed on harnessing compliance and instabilities in engineered structural materials and devices to achieve function.
