Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 22

4D TECHNOLOGY
Photo Source: Twitter
Photo Source: DigitaltTrends
Shapeshifting
4D Technology
E
Photo Source: Live Science
ver wondered what 4D
technology looks like?
Well, it’s pretty much like
3D plus another dimen-
sion: time.
Research from Harvard
University has found a way for a
3D-printed flower to shapeshift
while being immersed in water.
It is 4D-printed hydrogel com-
posite structure that is the shape
of an orchid, which is printed in
a single step but in a modified
print path.

Hydrogel composites
contain cellulose fibrils, an
organic compound found in
plants. It solidifies quickly upon
22
printing but changes its shape
with the cellulose fibrils.

It comes from the idea
of developing an object, espe-
cially that of nature, the way
plants reacts to external stim-
uli like sun or rain. It was the
brainchild of the scientists from
Wyss Institute for Biologically
Inspired Engineering and the
Harvard John A Paulson School
of Engineering and Applied
Siences.

This groundbreaking
research is funded by the US
Army Research Office and the
Materials Research Science and
Engineering Center.