Research Interests

Broad research interests: Additive manufacturing, Biomaterials, Smart polymers, Nanomaterials, Deployable devices.

With a background focused on materials engineering and some prior research experience in fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials, I currently work at the interface of materials and biology. My current research is interdisciplinary in nature, combining aspects of material selection, design, synthesis, and characterization to yield novel materials/devices for biomedical applications. 

We work on fabricating materials via additive manufacturing, mostly extrusion-based 3D printing, to create complex-shaped scaffolds based on synthetic polymers of medical grade. We then perform various physical, mechanical, and morphological characterizations to test the suitability of the scaffolds in relevant applications. And most importantly, the cell response to the material, termed biocompatibility, is also tested. 

Currently, we're exploring shape-memory polymers and engineering shape-memory polymer composites that could be programmed to exhibit predictive shape deformations post-shape change. We also fabricate composites responsive to alternating magnetic fields, NIR, etc., to trigger remote shape recovery. We're working toward engineering stents and tissue scaffolds as potential applications for such materials.

Click here for more information about my PhD advisor, Prof Kaushik Chatterjee, and the lab group.