Biography
Ashkan (Ash) Rezanejad is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science and a member of RADLab (PI: Prof. Antonio Elia Forte). He has a cross-disciplinary background in Electronics (BEng, King’s College London, 2021), Robotics, Granular Mechanics, and Molecular Dynamics (PhD, King’s College London, 2026).
His research focuses on programmable mechanics across multiple scales, ranging from entangled granular metamaterials, where collective behaviour emerges through mechanical entanglement, to programmable soft actuators driven by geometry-induced deformation. His work on granular entanglement has led to the creation of a spin-out company, The Weird Gripper Company, where he is Co-founder and CTO.
Research Interests
- Granular Matter
- Mechanical Metamaterial
- Robotic Manipulation
- Soft Robotics
Current Research Projects
Entangled Granular Metamaterials: Emergent Collective Behavior Driven by Grain Geometry
Programmable Soft Actuators: Inverse Design of Geometry-Induced Deformation
