Computational Mechanics and Bioelectromagnetic Laboratory

Engineering for Health and Biomedical Technologies

We are actively recruiting PhD students, Master's students, and Undergra students toin our group and collaborate on cutting-edge interdisciplinary modeling projects.

Patient-specific models to guide complex pelvic surgeries

Rice engineers and collaborators at MD Anderson develop 3D mechanics models of the pelvis

Menghani, R.R., et al. Mechanics of bone graft and implant choices for spino-pelvic reconstruction following combined hemipelvectomy, sacretomy, and L5 vertebrectomy. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials (2026).

Wearable Removes the Guesswork from Breastfeeding

Rice engineers collaborate on research to develop wearables that measure babies' milk intake

Kim, J., Oh, S., Avila, R. et al. A compact, wireless system for continuous monitoring of breast milk expressed during breastfeeding. Nature Biomedical Engineering (2025).

Wearable Devices Get Signal Boost from Innovative Material

Rice engineer and collaborators overcome radio frequency performance challenges in skin -interfaced electronics

Kim, S.H., Basir, A., Avila, R. et al. Strain-invariant stretchable radio-frequency electronics. Nature (2024).

Learn About Transient Electronics

Rice engineers provide a perspective on transient mechanics

Liu, P., Lee, C., Carusetta, N, and Avila, R. Transient Mechanics: A Perspective on Bioresorbable Electronics. Journal of Applied Mechanics (2025).

About Us

We engineer bioelectronic systems with programmable mechanical and electromagnetic responses, enabling robust operation in soft, dynamic, and biologically integrated environments. By coupling structural mechanics with electromagnetics, we design devices that preserve functionality under deformation while supporting wireless sensing, energy harvesting, and therapeutic actuation.

Our research develops multiscale, multiphysics modeling frameworks that unify mechanics, electromagnetics, and chemical processes to uncover fundamental scaling laws governing performance, degradation, and tissue-device interactions. These insights establish a mechanistic foundation for the rational design of next-generation bioresorbable and stretchable bioelectronic systems.