Biography
Junke Yao is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Mechanisms at the University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science, working in the RAD Lab led by Prof. Antonio Elia Forte. She is currently a researcher on the UKRI-funded NARMM project, developing manufacturing strategies for morphing inflatable structures for assistive wearable technologies.
Her research lies at the intersection of soft robotics, mechanical metamaterials, and computational modelling, with a focus on designing adaptive structures and robotic materials for biomedical and assistive applications.
Junke received her PhD in Medical Robotics from University College London, followed by an MSc in Human and Biological Robotics from Imperial College London and a BEng in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow. Her work has been published in leading journals, including IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and presented at international conferences such as IEEE EMBC.
Current Research Projects
NARMM Project:
Developing morphing inflatable structures for next-generation assistive wearable devices.
Multi-stable Modular Robotics:
Designing magnetically active multi-stable structures that enable shape-morphing robotic systems.
Research Interests
- Soft Robotics
- Mechanical Metamaterials
- Computational Modelling
- Medical Robotics
