Molly Carton

Molly Carton is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow whose research interests lie at the interface of computational design of materials, fabrication, and robotics. She uses algorithmic design and computational fabrication to generate architected materials and mechanisms with new mechanical properties and to explore how those properties can be deployed to create sensors, actuators, and robotic and deployable systems. Her research includes designing scalable simulation techniques to understand the properties of these materials and structures within tractable limits of time and computation resources. Her work on computational geometry and the development of machine-controlled fabrication processes have led her to explore the larger challenge of creating frameworks for next-generation fabrication tools. Molly’s work has the potential for a major impact on materials design and fabrication and could advance the use of architected materials with valuable properties, from soft robots and shape-morphing 4D printed structures that can be manufactured on demand and deployed at record speed to medical devices that are tailored to the individual patient.