PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jonathan B. Hopkins

Also known as Jonathan Brigham Hopkins

Jonathan B. Hopkins is a UCLA mechanical engineer who invented mechanical neural networks, architected materials that learn behaviors by tuning their stiffness the way artificial neural networks train their weights. He earned three mechanical engineering degrees at MIT, where his 2007 master's thesis introduced the Freedom and Constraint Topology (FACT) method of flexure design, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining UCLA in 2013. After a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2016, his 2022 Science Robotics study showed a lattice of tunable beams learning to hold different shapes under different loads, work that earned him ASME's Leonardo Da Vinci Award in August 2025. He is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, where he directs the Flexible Research Group and serves as vice-chair for graduate affairs.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2010

    MIT degrees and the FACT method

    He earns bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering at MIT in 2005, 2007 and 2010. His 2007 master's thesis introduces Freedom and Constraint Topology (FACT), a flexure design method that draws on screw theory and projective geometry, and his 2010 PhD thesis refines it.

  2. By 2013

    From Livermore to UCLA

    After a postdoctoral post at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he joins UCLA in 2013. There he leads the Flexible Research Group, which studies microarchitectured materials, additive fabrication, MEMS, precision flexures, soft robots and medical devices.

  3. 2016

    A Presidential Early Career Award

    In February 2016, the White House names him, then an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, among 105 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration nominates him, and President Barack Obama honors him at the White House.

  4. 2021

    ASME fellowship and free lectures

    In June 2021, as an associate professor, he is elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He launches The FACTs of Mechanical Design in 2021, a YouTube channel of free lectures on compliant mechanisms. His paper “Compliant Mechanisms That Use Static Balancing to Achieve Dramatically Different States of Stiffness” wins the 2021 Best Paper Award of the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics.

  5. 2022–2024

    Mechanical neural networks

    In October 2022, he leads a Science Robotics study, “Mechanical neural networks: Architected materials that learn behaviors,” with doctoral student Ryan Lee as lead author. Its prototype is a triangular lattice of tunable beams whose stiffness an optimization algorithm adjusts, and it learns to hold different shapes under different loads. He presents these networks at UC San Diego in May 2024 as metamaterials whose stiffness is tuned the way weights are trained in artificial neural networks.

  6. 2025

    An alternating-pressure mattress

    In 2025, his team reports in Science Robotics an alternating-pressure mattress for preventing bedsores, built on a lattice of compliant mechanisms that shifts between two checkerboard surface patterns. The National Institutes of Health funds the work.

  7. August 2025–November 2025

    Da Vinci Award and ASPE fellowship

    In August 2025, ASME presents him with its Leonardo Da Vinci Award in Anaheim for inventing mechanical neural networks, which launch the field of artificial-intelligent metamaterials; he is the first UCLA Samueli professor to receive it. In November 2025, the American Society for Precision Engineering inducts him into its College of Fellows at its 40th annual meeting in San Diego, recognizing his FACT method and educational outreach.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and vice-chair at UCLA

    He is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, where he directs the Flexible Research Group and serves as vice-chair for graduate affairs. In September 2025, a doctoral student joins his group to research mechanical neural networks.

Career

  1. Since 2013University of California, Los AngelesAssistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
  2. Lawrence Livermore National SecurityPostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2010Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhD in mechanical engineering
  2. 2007Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMaster's degree in mechanical engineering
  3. 2005Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBachelor's degree in mechanical engineering

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Jonathan B. Hopkins. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  4. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Jonathan B. Hopkins yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Flexible Research Group flexible.seas.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Jonathan B. Hopkins - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Three Faculty Win PECASE: Highest Honor for Young Researchers in U.S. | UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering samueli.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. UCLA Samueli Mechanical Engineering Professor Hopkins, Jonathan wins ASME Leonardo Da Vinci Award for New Invention | MAE mae.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Artificial Intelligent Mechanical Metamaterials that Learn Behaviors | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering mae.ucsd.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Jonathan Hopkins elected a Fellow of ASME | MAE mae.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. UCLA Engineers Design AI Material That Learns Behaviors and Adapts to Changing Conditions | UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering samueli.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. UCLA engineers design AI material that learns behaviors and adapts to changing conditions | EurekAlert! eurekalert.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Physics - Intelligent Materials: Science Fiction to Science Fact physics.aps.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. UCLA Engineers Design Alternating-Pressure Mattress for Bedsore Prevention | UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering samueli.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  11. Prof. Jonathan Hopkins has been elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Precision Engineering | MAE mae.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.