PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Lining Yao

Lining Yao is a mechanical engineer whose AI work uses language models and optimization algorithms to design robots that change shape. She studied design at Zhejiang University, earned a doctorate at the MIT Media Lab in 2017, and joined Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute in 2017. Her teams developed heat-folding plastic structures, pasta that changes shape during cooking, and wooden seed carriers that bury themselves in response to moisture. In 2025, she coauthored RoboMoRe, which jointly optimized robot bodies and rewards, and led work on a genetic algorithm for morphing truss robots. As of October 2026, she is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley and directs its Morphing Matter Lab.

Works
186
Citations
5,081
h-index
37

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 28 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2007–2017

    Design degrees and MIT doctorate

    She grows up in a village in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. At Zhejiang University, she earns a B.E. in industrial design in 2007 and an M.S. in digital arts and design in 2010. She earns an M.S. in 2012 and a Ph.D. in 2017 in media arts and science at the MIT Media Lab.

  2. 2017

    A lab at Carnegie Mellon

    In 2017, she joins Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science as an assistant professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and directs the Morphing Matter Lab.

  3. 2018

    Thermorph folds printed plastic

    In 2018, her team develops Thermorph, which uses an inexpensive 3D printer to make flat plastic objects that fold into set shapes when heated. The method controls the printing speed and combines materials with different responses to heat.

  4. 2021

    An NSF CAREER award

    She receives a $550,000 NSF CAREER award in 2021 to make interactive morphing materials more accessible. The project develops hardware and software toolkits for applications such as medical devices, clothing and food.

  5. May 2021

    Morphing pasta and beyond

    In May 2021, her lab’s team publishes Morphing Pasta and Beyond in Science Advances. Grooves stamped into flat dough made from semolina flour and water control how the pasta bends during cooking, allowing it to form tubes, spirals and other shapes.

  6. By 2023

    Self-burying E-seed carriers

    By 2023, she and her team develop E-seed, a wooden, biodegradable seed carrier that drills into soil as moisture changes. Its three tails and coiled body can be sized for different terrain and seed payloads, with applications in aerial seeding and reforestation.

  7. January 2024

    Joining Berkeley mechanical engineering

    In January 2024, she joins UC Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering after serving as Cooper-Siegel associate professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

  8. May 2025

    RoboMoRe designs robot bodies

    In May 2025, she coauthors RoboMoRe with Jiawei Fang, Yuxuan Sun, Chengtian Ma and Qiuyu Lu. The framework uses a large language model to jointly optimize robot body shapes and reward functions that guide their movement.

  9. September 2025

    AI designs morphing truss robots

    In September 2025, she is principal investigator of a study that uses a genetic algorithm to design morphing truss robots and reduce the number of control units they need. Her team tests prototypes including a four-legged robot, a helmet that changes shape and a walking robot inspired by a lobster.

  10. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at Berkeley

    As of October 2026, she is an associate professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Zheng-White Faculty Fellow. She directs Berkeley’s Morphing Matter Lab, serves on the executive committee of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, and holds a courtesy appointment in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. She is an affiliated faculty member of the Berkeley Intelligent Robot Design Center.

Career

  1. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyAssociate Professor
  2. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyDirector of the Morphing Matter Lab
  3. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyExecutive Committee Member
  4. NowCarnegie Mellon UniversityCourtesy appointment
  5. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyAffiliated Faculty Member of the Berkeley Intelligent Robot Design Center
  6. From 2024University of California, Berkeley
  7. From 2017Carnegie Mellon UniversityAssistant Professor
  8. Carnegie Mellon UniversityDirector of the Morphing Matter Lab
  9. Carnegie Mellon UniversityCooper-Siegel Associate Professor

Education

  1. 2017Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPh.D.
  2. 2012Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyM.S.
  3. 2010Zhejiang UniversityM.S.
  4. 2007Zhejiang UniversityB.E.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Checked career sources: hcii.cmu.edu.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Lining Yao yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Lining Yao - College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University engineering.cmu.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  2. The Shape of Pasta: HCII Assistant Professor Morphs Matter | Human-Computer Interaction Institute hcii.cmu.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  3. Yao Receives NSF CAREER Award | Human-Computer Interaction Institute hcii.cmu.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  4. Thermorph: Flat, 3D Printed Materials that Self-Fold When Heated | Human-Computer Interaction Institute hcii.cmu.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  5. CMU Lab Leads Development of Pasta That Morphs - News - Carnegie Mellon University cmu.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  6. Yao’s Seed Carrier Shortlisted for Science Breakthrough of the Year Award | Human-Computer Interaction Institute hcii.cmu.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  7. Lining Yao - UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering me.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  8. [2506.00276] RoboMoRe: LLM-based Robot Co-design via Joint Optimization of Morphology and Reward arxiv.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  9. AI-Driven Tool Optimizes the Design of Shape-Shifting Truss Robots | Research UC Berkeley vcresearch.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  10. Lining Yao — Morphing Matter Lab morphingmatter.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  11. People - Berkeley Intelligent Robot Design Center bird.me.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.