​About Xinyue (刘心悦)

I am a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I currently work as a research assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with Prof. Xuanhe Zhao. My research focuses on exploiting 3D printing techniques to develop living devices for diagnosis and therapy. While human tissues are mostly soft, wet and living; machines are commonly hard, dry and non-living. To enable a seamless human-machine interface, I invented living devices, which integrate functional living components into smart hydrogels. I printed wearable living tattoos for epidermal signal detection, and designed ingestible hydrogel pills that can achieve prolonged residence in GI tract for long-term diet monitoring and modulation. My ultimate goal is to implement hydrogel technologies and program living organisms to chart new basic and translational studies for human health.

Education
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering
​Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
Department of Mechanical Engineering
​& Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM)
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​​B.E. in Polymer Science and Engineering
Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Sept 2015 – Present



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Sept 2011 – Jun 2015

Experience
Graduate Research Assistant 
Zhao Lab (PI: Prof. Xuanhe Zhao)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT
  • Utilized hydrogels as matrices and genetically engineered bacteria as active elements, and 3D-printed into a series of living materials and devices for environmental monitoring, health diagnosis and therapy.
  • Designed hydrogels with extremely high swelling ratio and swelling speed, and employed them as ingestible pills that can retain in the GI tract as swollen balloons for a month, continuously recording core biosignals.
  • Invented hydrogel-based optical fibers and adopted for optical stimulation and recording in the central and peripheral nervous systems.
  • Induced the formation of nanocrystals and nanofibrils in hydrogels, and fabricated fatigue-resistant hydrogels that can function in the mechanically dynamic environments. 

Teaching Assistant
Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT
  • Served as a TA for 2.075 Mechanics of Soft Materials.

Mentor for UROP
Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT
  • Mentored Minna Wyttenbach (MechE, 22')

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Functional Membrane Lab (PI: Prof. Changsheng Zhao)
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, China
  • Constructed polymeric membranes with diverse biological functionalities, such as anti-bacterial, anti-fouling, and anti-thrombotic surface properties, and stimuli-responsiveness.

Visiting Undergraduate Research Assistant
Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University, Canada
  • Produced porous polymer scaffold for ion-exchange membranes.

Reviewer
  • ​Served as a reviewer for Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Macro Letters, Chemistry of Materials, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Materials Science & Engineering: C, Polymer International, International Journal of Smart and Nano Materials.
  • Served on behalf of PI as a reviewer ​for Nature Chemistry, Advanced Materials.

EHS Representative
Zhao Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT
  • Identify and address environment, health and safety issues including assurance that lab staff gets the appropriate training, and routinely updating laboratory personnel information in the training database.
  • Aid PI in required weekly level I and semi-annual DLC-wide level II inspection processes.​
​​​Sept 2015 – Present














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​Sept 2019 – Dec 2019


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Feb 2019 – Jun 2019


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Jun 2013 – Jun 2015



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​Jun 2014 – Aug 2014


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Sept 2015 – Present






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Sept 2018 – Present

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Awards
Outstanding Students Abroad, China Scholarship Council​
Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Forbes
​​Pappalardo Graduate Student Support, MIT
Outstanding Student, Sichuan University
Globalink Research Intern Award, Mitacs Globalink, Canada
National Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China
2020
​2020
​2017
2015
2014
​2012
© 2020 Xinyue Liu. All rights reserved.