About Me

I am an Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto.

Artificial intelligence is poised to redefine the next generation of artificial materials and engineering systems. Since 2018, I have developed an independent research program at the intersection of artificial intelligence, metamaterials, robotics, and additive manufacturing, aiming to build reliable AI systems that transform how robotic materials and structures are designed, understood, and programmed.

A central focus of my current research is the development of large-language-model-driven agents that integrate scientific reasoning, generative design, and human-like comprehension for self-driving discovery of new materials and structures for next-generation robotics (see ChatMetamaterials ).

Research interests include:

  • Large-language-model agents and AI systems for materials discovery
  • Programmable mechanical metamaterials
  • Soft robotics, smart robotic structures, and embodied intelligence
  • Lightweight programmable aerospace structures
  • Additive manufacturing
I welcome collaborations in AI for science, mechanical metamaterials, robotics, aerospace structures, and additive manufacturing. Please feel free to contact me with research or translation ideas.

Grants

  1. Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Fellowship logo
    Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Fellowship, Canada, 2025 — CAD 170k

    Grant recipient; selected as one of approximately 160 fellows worldwide, including 11 in Canada. Research topic: “Inventing the Inventor: Agent-Based Metamaterial Discovery Based on Large Language Models.”

  2. NSERC Collaborative Postdoctoral Research Award logo
    NSERC Collaborative Postdoctoral Research Award, Canada, 2025 — CAD 140k

    Grant recipient; selected among approximately 40 fellows annually across Canada. Research topic: “Agent-Based Metamaterial Discovery with Large Language Models.”

  3. National Natural Science Foundation of China logo
    National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2023 — RMB 300k

    Principal Investigator (1/1); Grant No. 523B2048. Awarded to top 0.1% PhDs in China. . Research topic: design and additive manufacture of programmable thermo-mechanical integrated satellite metastructures.

  4. Shanghai Jiao Tong University logo
    Shanghai Jiao Tong University Development Grant, 2025 — RMB 300k

    Grant recipient, awarded to 5 candidates in SJTU. Research topic: AI-driven programmable design for mechanical metamaterials.

Publications

My publication record includes 18 published or accepted journal articles, with 8 first-author papers focusing on developing next-generation AI-driven metamaterials and structures for robotics and aerospace applications.

View Google Scholar ↗

First-author Publications

8 papers

Additional Published Articles

10 papers

Journal Impact Factors are shown where currently available and should be refreshed annually. Paper media files are detected automatically from P1 through P18; entries without a matching file remain in the standard text layout.

Research Software Platforms

These platforms were independently conceived, founded, implemented, and maintained by Zhenyang Gao. Collaboration enquiries are welcome.

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2025 — Present

ChatMetamaterials

A large-language-model-driven platform for prompt-based metamaterial discovery, design automation, deformation programming, and AI-assisted scientific innovation. Includes classification, deformation-recognition, research-innovation, product-design, and universal metamaterial-generation APIs. This platform now supports world-wide scientific discovery of new metamaterials and associated innovative structures for robotics, automotive, aerospace engineering, and biomedical devices.

Try ChatMetamaterials ↗
Polymer-inspired metamaterial programming system
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2024 — Present

Polymer-Inspired Metamaterial Robotics Programming System

A platform supports programming a new class of polymer-inspired mechanical metamaterials that translates polymer microstructures and toughening mechanisms into macroscale programmable architectures, expands conventional lattice-property limits, and is naturally suited to soft robotics and humanoid tissues, as demonstrated through programmable humanoid tissues, robotic fingers, toes and feet, and soft biomimetic exoskeletons.

Related work ↗
AI-driven metamaterial damage programming platform overview
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2023 — Present

AI-Driven Metamaterial Damage Programming Platform

This AI-driven platform establishes the first systematic framework for spatially programming fracture and translates the fracture toughening mechanisms such as crack tip interaction, crack shielding, and reinforcement bridging into artificial metamaterials. The platform supports next-generation applications in satellite re-entry structures, fracture-protective robotic systems, aerospace protection, and damage-resistant vehicles by enabling lightweight architectures with spatially programmed functional cracks and artificial toughening mechanisms.

Related work ↗
Metainterface programming system overview
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2023 — Present

Metainterface Programming System

This AI-driven system establishes a systematic framework for a new “metainterface” concept that spatially programming mechanical, thermal, and active interfacial behavior through orientation-distributed architectures inspired from bee sting. It enables programmable interfacial resistance in composite metamaterials, impact regulation in fish-scale protective assemblies, coolant-flow control for adaptive thermal management, and digitally controlled metadisks with real-time reconfigurable mechanics for intelligent robotics.

Related work ↗
Energy-absorbing metamaterial design engine demonstration
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2022 — Present

AI-Driven Energy-Absorbing Metamaterial Design Engine

An AI-driven computational engine for generating natural-fiber-inspired twisting architectures and composite metamaterials with programmable energy absorption, structural recovery, and dynamic loading response. Supported applications includes reusable impact-absorbing architectures for robotic legs and feet, satellite and rover landing systems, aerospace impact protection, armor, and other high-value protective equipment.

Machine Tools article ↗

Awards

  1. Doctoral Innovation Award — Chinese Materials Research Society, China, 2026
  2. National Scholarship — China, 2024
  3. Outstanding PhD Graduate of Shanghai — Shanghai, China, 2025
  4. National Silver Award — 9th Internet+ College Students Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition, China, 2023
  5. “Academic Star” Nomination Award — First Place — Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, 2025
  6. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites Research Award — Grand Prize — China, 2025
  7. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites Research Award — First Prize — China, 2024
  8. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites Research Award — Grand Prize — China, 2023
  9. SAMPE Bridge Contest — First Prize (Poster) — McGill University, Canada, 2019
  10. Dean’s Honours List — University of Waterloo, Canada, 2018
  11. China Scholarship Council Scholarship — 2023

Industrial Translation

My research translates AI-driven materials design into engineering-scale manufacturing, with a particular focus on robotics and aerospace applications. Representative outcomes include programmed lightweight robotic feet and leg structures based on NFI metamaterials; an additively manufactured aircraft cabin-door hinge arm achieving approximately 20% mass reduction; and a meter-scale aero-engine fan-blade demonstrator that validates the scalability of architected-material design and large-format laser additive manufacturing. Our ChatMetamaterials platform is also open to industrial collaboration, particularly for applications requiring sentence-to-component metamaterial design.

Contact

Research and collaboration

I am open to collaboration across AI for science, LLM agents, mechanical metamaterials, robotics, aerospace, additive manufacturing, and industrial translation.

zhenyang.gao@utoronto.ca Google Scholar ↗ ChatMetamaterials ↗