Creating Change Through Innovation
Jacob Miske, MS’25 and PhD’28, mechanical engineering, has been studying mechanical engineering his entire college career. In the Transformative Robotics Lab at Northeastern, Miske develops impactful devices to improve lives and enact positive change.
Jacob Miske graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a dual bachelor’s degree in nuclear science and mechanical engineering. During his undergraduate studies, he worked diligently at MIT’s nuclear reactor. Looking to expand his career opportunities and further explore mechanical engineering, Miske decided to pursue a master’s degree. Miske had worked on a paper during his undergraduate studies with Assistant Professor Jeffrey Ian Lipton, who was then completing his postdoctoral studies. After he reached out to Professor Lipton for a recommendation, Professor Lipton asked Miske to join his research team and continue his studies at Northeastern University.
Miske completed his master’s curriculum in mechanical engineering in May 2025. During his master’s, Miske began conducting research at the Transformative Robotics Lab (TRL), a part of the Institute for Experimental Robotics at Northeastern. The TRL is a lab that focuses on research in advanced manufacturing, robotics and 3D printing. Miske has continued his research at the TRL since starting his PhD program.
Miske believes the TRL is unique in many ways, with the size of the lab being a significant facet. As a smaller lab, comparatively, Miske believes it allows for closer collaboration. Miske said, “It’s only a handful of us now, but because we are a relatively small cohort, we can all fit in the same room. We can all join in the conversation, thereby contributing to the direction of each other’s work.”
While describing some of his past projects at the TRL, Miske cites an early endeavor building metal spheres with motors inside them that can expand and contract like a Hoberman sphere. Miske and his fellow researchers developed high-force metal versions of the Hoberman spheres to create modular robots that had the ability to roll around and manipulate their environment. Additionally, Miske began exploring auxetic structures and mechanisms to incorporate into this device. Miske then built large lattices of these cells and included reconfigurable locking elements in them. The device can be bent or can lock out certain cells for a fixed frame. It can be used to mold or stamp things and works as a reconfigurable manufacturing structure. Miske developed what amounts to a programmable manufacturing fixture – a lattice structure that can reshape itself and lock into different configurations for molding or stamping. Instead of needing separate tools for each manufacturing task, this reconfigurable frame adapts on demand, potentially reducing equipment costs and production line complexity.
SES Annual Technical Meeting
Miske has continued advancing auxetic surface technology by adding motorized control. By attaching a series of motors to these surfaces, his team can electronically program the structure to morph into different 3D shapes on command. This represents an evolution from their earlier work: the initial prototypes used mechanical locks to hold fixed configurations, but the motorized version offers dynamic control—the structure can continuously reshape itself rather than simply locking into preset positions. This programmability opens new possibilities for adaptive tooling and manufacturing, where a single piece of equipment could transform to accommodate different production needs.
Miske presented this research at the Society of Engineering Science Annual Technical Meeting. His main thrust was describing the progress in his research on auxetic surfaces and how someone can use a fixed number of motors to do what is known as under-actuated control. The research and topics discussed at the SES Annual Technical Meeting are broad, and Miske considers it beneficial to view research through a multidisciplinary lens to improve upon one’s own research. He says, “It’s a very wide audience, and I think what I found most engaging about the SES annual conference is talking to people who are working on what appeared to be, on the surface, very different topics, but with lots of similarities when you dig into the technical matters themselves. It was multidisciplinary, and very enriching in that dimension.”
Miske values attending as many conferences as possible. He thinks, whether consciously or subconsciously, attending academic conferences helps him to improve his research and thinking in ways he would have never considered. When he attended the IEEE Robosoft Conference in Switzerland, he said that after hearing from others talk about their research, he was able to adapt his work on the TRL’s 3D printed foam project for the better.
Creating Change Through Innovation
Miske is particularly excited about his third TRL project creating foam structures from 3D printers. Instead of printing solid layers in the traditional way, his team “drizzles” filament from a printer nozzle, allowing the material to fall and create irregular air pockets throughout the structure. This technique produces foam-like materials with controllable porosity—the team can vary pore density throughout a single print by adjusting the drizzle pattern. The applications span from biomedical polymer foams for tissue engineering to industrial metal foams for lightweight structural components.
Miske considers using this technique to make insoles for shoes as his most significant creation. By developing insoles through this process, they can improve accessibility to custom orthotic insoles by making them cheaper while manufacturing them faster. This issue is personal to Miske; his mother has “Charcot-Marie-Tooth” disease. This disease impacts an individual’s nerves connecting their brain and spinal cord to the rest of their body, causing muscle weakness and neuropathy. Miske said these insoles have helped his mother feel more comfortable, and he knows that the tech can be applied more broadly to serve even more people with similar conditions.
Miske, alongside Professor Lipton and another colleague, received a Spark Fund from Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation for this project, which is titled “Northo.” The Spark Fund awards provide gap funding to turn promising lab research into market-ready prototypes. Miske is thrilled to continue his research on a device that he has seen firsthand make an impact and can help many people.
Miske is also working on a method for building spheres, cylinders and planes for robotic joints that can act in new, compliant ways. With each shape, they can cut a specific pattern into it to make it torsionally resistant, meaning the shape can withstand the stress of a twisting force while remaining rigid, preventing it from breaking. Miske and his team create these soft robotic parts from flexible materials, like the foam they have created from 3D printing filament. Soft robotic systems made from flexible materials could transform accessibility technology. Traditional rigid robots struggle with delicate or irregularly shaped objects. Miske’s flexible robotic systems can adapt their grip and shape to handle varied tasks more safely and effectively. This advancement could significantly improve assistive devices for people with disabilities, from robotic aids that help with daily tasks to adaptive prosthetics that respond more naturally to their users’ needs.
Reflections
Miske expects to complete his mechanical engineering PhD program in May 2028. Looking ahead in the future, Miske wishes to continue pioneering novel devices that can positively influence the lives of many. When talking about what kind of work he wants to pursue in his career, he said, “I want to take my skills and facilitate utility, but I also want to do something that is impactful.”