Cody Gonzalez is an incoming Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio and will be joining the faculty in January 2023. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Riverside in 2016 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State in 2021. Dr. Gonzalez is also the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority Ph.D. Program Fellowship.
Dr. Gonzalez’s research centers on the intersection of soft robotics, multifunctional materials, and design optimization. His dissertation concentrated on investigating how novel, multifunctional materials can enable the use of lithium-ion batteries as smart actuators. He focuses on using design optimization based on novel analytical models and simulations to inform optimal experimental designs.
Recent thrusts have centered on developing energy harvesters for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) applications and predicting actuator metrics for liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) actuators. Applications for his work include design optimization of multifunctional actuators, soft robotics for improved locomotor rehabilitation, and optimization of energy harvester geometry for maximum power output. He has nine archival publications and one provisional patent.
Topics of interest include magneto-mechano electrical energy harvesting, analytical modeling of segmented, multilayer, multimember actuators; development of silicon anode-based lithium-ion batteries; and design optimization of smart materials.