Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Haptic devices create or measure tactile sensations for the human perception of touch. Applications for haptic devices are far-reaching, from virtual or augmented reality to prosthetics, telesurgery, rehabilitation, and education. However, there are technical and scientific challenges behind fabricating lightweight and flexible devices, measuring or mimicking natural tactile stimuli, and fundamental knowledge between material properties and tactile sensations. The human-machine interface in haptic devices is mechanically complex and currently poorly served by materials innovations. The goal of this symposium is to bring together experts in haptics devices and systems with experts in soft matter chemistry, mechanical actuation and contact mechanics.

This symposium will cover applied and fundamental haptics materials research. Topics include soft matter interfaces and adhesion phenomena, tactile perception, soft robotics, new methods for actuation and sensing, wearable or flexible device integration and manufacture, and stimuli-responsive materials for actuation. Advances in haptic interfaces will require an interdisciplinary team representing materials sciences, contact mechanics, robotics, device engineering, human psychophysics, and neuromechanics.

We hope that this symposium will bridge haptics and materials innovation to generate new interdisciplinary ideas and collaborations.

Topics will include:

• soft matter mechanics
• soft robotics
• haptics
• wearable actuators and sensors
• tactile perception
• stimuli responsive materials
• flexible electronics
• thin film sensors
• soft actuators

Invited Speakers (tentative):

• Cagatay Basdogan (Koc University, Turkey)
• Roland Bennewitz (INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Germany)
• Edward Colgate (Northwestern University, USA)
• Greg Gerling (University of Virginia, USA)
• Cindy Harnett (University of Louisville, USA)
• Cynthia Hipwell (Texas A&M University, USA)
• Astrid Kappers (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)
• Laure Kayser (University of Delaware, USA)
• Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio (Yale University, USA)
• Katherine Kuchenbecker (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany)
• Darren Lipomi (University of California, San Diego, USA)
• Domenico Prattichizzo (Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy)
• John Rogers (Northwestern University, USA)
• Romke Rouw (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Veronica Santos (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
• Hasti Seifi (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Herbert Shea (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Robert Shepherd (Cornell University, USA)
• Benjamin Tee (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
• Nitish Thakor (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
• Xueju Wang (University of Connecticut, USA)

Symposium Organizers