Recently, Prof. Zheng Qiang and Prof. Wu Ziliang of Zhejiang University and Prof. Hong Wei of Southern University of Science and Technology used responsive hydrogels to prepare soft robots with different topologies, which realized spontaneous continuous movement under static lighting conditions. The results show that the topology enhances the correlation of local deformation, and the self-occlusion effect of the winding correlation and the self-similarity of the rotational motion together endow the topological robot with self-adjustment function, so as to realize the spontaneous continuous motion under static stimuli.
The work was published in Nature Communications under the title "Animating hydrogel knotbots with topology-invoked self-regulation". Zhu Qingli, a doctoral student at Zhejiang University, and Liu Weixuan, a master's student at Southern University of Science and Technology, are the co-first authors of the paper, and Zheng Qiang and Wu Ziliang from Zhejiang University and Hong Wei from Southern University of Science and Technology are the co-corresponding authors of the paper. The research was supported by projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Shanghai Light Source.
According to the article, the knot is a typical topological structure, and in the knot such as the three-leaf knot, the symmetry of the mirror, axial, and chiral is broken, which is conducive to the dynamic drive and the regulation of the movement mode of the soft robot. In addition, the interspersed winding in the making of knots generates internal stresses, forms topological constraints, and also strengthens the self-occlusion effect. The combination of knotting topologies and smart materials has the potential to endow soft robots with physical intelligence, such as autonomous control, to achieve spontaneous and continuous movement.
The authors used anisotropic hydrogels to prepare topological robots with different knot structures, including rings, three-leaf knots, five-leaf knots, Solomon knots, and Star-of-David links, which achieved continuous rolling and rotation under static light. The influences of knot size, chirality, light intensity and direction on the kinematics of topological robots were studied. The theoretical model further confirms that the self-regulating movement mechanism is due to the synergistic effect of topology-induced pre-strain, rapid and reversible shape change, and self-masking effect. Such topology robots can be used to perform specific tasks such as rotating gears, transporting goods, and more.
As previously reported, after stepping down from his administrative position, Zheng Qiang still serves as a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University, with research directions: polymer rheology, structure and properties of multi-component polymer materials, and polymer composite materials.
According to the personal homepage of the teachers on the official website of Zhejiang University, Zheng Qiang established China's first academic team of polymer dynamic rheology research at Zhejiang University after returning from studying abroad in 1995. He has made a series of achievements in the rheological research of multi-phase/multi-component complex polymer packed systems, and proposed a rheological "two-phase" model that is internationally praised as "The Model of Song and Zheng". He is the main person in charge of the first-level national key discipline of chemistry and the main academic leader of the second-level national key discipline of polymer chemistry and physics of Zhejiang University.
In recent years, Zheng Qiang has presided over 16 national research projects such as the National Key Basic Research Development Plan (973), the National High-tech Research and Development Program (863), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published more than 519 papers in important academic journals such as Macromolecules, J.Rheo, Soft Matter, Polymer, etc., including more than 489 SCI papers and more than 4,600 SCI citations, and 38 national invention patents have been authorized. He has made 6 invited reports at international academic conferences, more than 40 invited reports, and more than 30 chairmen of the conference organizing committee or branches. He won the Baosteel Outstanding Teacher Award (2002), the Wang Baoren Award for Polymer Basic Research of the Chinese Chemical Society (2005), and won 3 first prizes of the Provincial Science and Technology Award, 1 second prize of the Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education, and 1 Zhejiang Outstanding Teaching Achievement Award as the first person to complete the award. It has trained nearly 100 master's and doctoral students.
(The following is the content of Professor Zheng Qiang's live speech, with deletion)
"There has never been a shortage of famous professors and scholars, and we need people who can think deeply about education from the height of the times and the nation...... Gathering a lot of knowledge is the first element of being an educator. “
Zheng Qiang, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang University and current secretary of the Party Committee of Taiyuan University of Technology, once shared the current hot education issues.
Zheng Qiang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Taiyuan University of Technology
1
A short-sighted look at education
There must be a lack of passion and enthusiasm
As a practitioner of education, in 1995, I returned to China from studying abroad and really became a teacher, I used to be in Sichuan University, I should say that this is my first step as a university teacher, and then I have been a teacher and professor in Zhejiang University, from 1995 to the present, it is also a few decades.
Now some people on the Internet say that I have a bit of status, and maybe what I said is a bit like what my grandfather said to his grandson. In fact, grandpa educating grandchildren is really different from parents. Parents around the age of 50 view their children differently than young couples who educate their children. With the growth of seniority and the richness of accumulation, we become more tolerant, and the more we do not look at the prominence of our children and how much wealth they have, but very much hope that our offspring:
First of all, be a whole person. We hope that their bodies will not be disabled, and even if they are, we must use our spirit to make up for the physical defects.
Second, be a perfect person. The greatest perfection of man is that every organ must have its function. The most important thing is this place - a healthy heart, a person whose heart can't support it, and whose limbs are imperfect and incomplete. In addition, we want to have a brain that can think, no matter how many muscles in the body are, no matter how thick they are, and people who lack basic thinking and wisdom, I personally think that it is not a person that we want to cultivate in education.
Third, the highest state is called the perfect person. What does it mean to be perfect? It is not a high-ranking official, it is not a prominent person, but a lifetime of life that not only makes oneself happy, but also dedicates each of us to the happiness of others.
When it comes to educators, I think it's important to be knowledgeable. For three-and-a-half-hour to four-hour speeches, I don't take a script. It's about 200,000 words, because I'm fast. For so many years, I very much agree with Professor Xi Youmin's point of view, without a large amount of knowledge accumulation, we only engage in education with a single so-called I am an expert, with all due respect, this is also the criticism and regret of our modern education.
Expert scientists are not equal to educators, whether it is a university, a middle school, a primary school, the education of the whole people, what we hope more is the emergence of great educators. I said that there is no shortage of famous professors and scholars in any university in China, and we need people who can think deeply about education from the height of the times and the nation, so I think gathering a large amount of knowledge is the first element of becoming an educator.
Second, be responsible. Education is the great plan of the country and the foundation of the nation, and people who do not have a strong sense of responsibility for the country and the nation cannot do education. Education is a long-term product, and it should never be assumed that if you sow today, you will reap tomorrow.
With all due respect, I would like to criticize a few words, that is, when we look at education too short-sightedly, and when we look at education like an industry, we lack passion and enthusiasm, which is the inevitable result. We should regard it as a cause, and the cause is done for the future, only in this way can we overcome the difficulties in front of us, and with such confidence for the great cause of the nation-state is the greatest determination in the hearts of educators.
2
What does failed education look like?
What is failed education? It is the difference between the faces of first-graders and the faces of seniors, and don't think that education can make people complete, perfect, and perfect. We found that many photos of senior students were compared with freshmen, their eyes were dull, and they had no courage to see girls, and their faces were decadent, so I want to say that we must not teach children to be stupid, stupid, wooden, and confused, or even teach without love for life. The so-called passion and literacy I am talking about are, in essence, full of yearning and love for life and life.
Some parents asked me how to reverse involution? I want to tell you: the happiness of life is indeed not to go to a prestigious school, it does not mean that I have not been admitted to a good university, and I have failed to study in a secondary school. If the whole people pursue to go to a prestigious school, the so-called involution phenomenon will always exist. We do not force or criticize, every family and every child has their own dreams and wants to go to the best school in China. But I can only tell you that if you don't get into the best school, don't go to university, go to secondary school, learn what you want to learn, do what you want to do, and be a self-reliant worker, you can have a happy life.
This is not empty words, I have never thought that people with status and wealth can compare your life and your heart to a cleaner or a canteen cook. This is the consensus and feeling that all of us have obtained in Zhejiang University and in all the so-called celebrity circles in the intellectual and scientific circles across the country. Therefore, the responsibility of a true educator is to pass on the conscience of society. We need to educate parents, society and children with our hearts and truths.
3
Articulation pains:
University teachers should be made to work hard
Some education practitioners want to ask, how to connect kindergarten, junior high and high school. I don't think we should attach too much importance to the connection of education, such as vocational education and higher education, which are obviously determined by the so-called test scores of basic education. First of all, we should do our work to the extreme, and don't focus too much on how perfect this connection is, thinking that it is done at different stages of school or education, which is done by society. The real connection is not how to connect the three stages, but how to connect education with the needs of society and the happiness of others' lives.
We would like to leave some space in primary and secondary schools. Chinese society believes that it will never lose at the starting line, so the attention of the whole people is on starting, rushing, and stealing. Everyone thinks it's best to sneak away, and when other people's children were still tying their shoes, my child ran 30 meters and thought he would win. I want to tell you that the growth of life is not determined by the speed at the beginning. For long-distance running 10,000 meters, we value acceleration and the ability to continue running on the way. I often say that we learn too much, learn too early, learn too deeply, and hurt our children. We all say that the animals in the field taste delicious, and that it is the natural growth that is the way of God.
For example, although not fully represented. In the field of professional polymers, almost none of the middle-aged scientists who are now in a leading position at Peking University have graduated from Peking University, and their success is to continue to learn and always learn. I now believe more and more that intelligence cannot make people, only hard work and continuous efforts can make people. A lot of professors, if I don't tell you that he is a scientist, you can't tell from his appearance that he has any wisdom, in fact he has no wisdom, he just does one thing obsessively in his life.
Speaking of which, I really want to relieve the pressure on primary and secondary school teachers, I think they are very hard, especially the female teachers in middle school, female teachers in primary schools, really get up earlier than students in the morning and sleep later than students at night, they are very distressed by this kind of hard work, I also want to say that yes, leave something for university teachers to work hard.
(Source: Qingta, The Paper, Guangming Society Educator.) The copyright belongs to the original author, and it is infringed and deleted. ）