MSE Webinar – Dr. Yihao ZHOU (5 November 2025)

Soft functional materials serve as pivotal bridges merging humans and machines with broad impacts in healthcare, robotics, and sustainability. In this talk, Dr. Zhou will introduce their efforts to understand and develop soft materials with intrinsic magnetic functionality. These materials can convert displacement and deformation into vector magnetic signals in a battery-less, self-powered, and remotely detectable manner, enabling soft magnetic bioelectronics for diverse healthcare applications. The first part of the seminar will focus on our understanding, modeling, and design of soft magnetic materials, including soft magnetoelastic composites and permanent fluidic magnets. The second part will discuss how these insights enable the design and manufacturing of bioelectronic devices for healthcare applications, from skin cancer screening and cardiovascular health monitoring to artificial electronic skins. Dr. Zhou will conclude with a vision for the future convergence of soft functional materials, artificial intelligence, and bioelectronics toward building a human digital twin for personalized and digital health.