Contact
Keplerstraße 11
70174 Stuttgart
Germany
Subject
Tiffany is a computational designer from Taiwan with a background in architecture and robotic fabrication. Interested in the intersections between computation, materials, and robotics, her research focuses on the creation of digital workflows that allow mass-customization of material properties, behavior, and performance.
Tiffany graduated from Harvard University with a Master in Design Studies (Technology). Prior, she earned her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California. She has practiced with Studio Fernando Vazquez, designing projects ranging from transportation hubs and bike facilities to architecture and interior design across the United States and Japan. Tiffany has also worked as a researcher with the MaP+S Group at Harvard GSD, developing novel material-informed digital fabrication strategies for bespoke carbon-fiber systems.
At the ICD, Tiffany researches responsive and self-shaping material systems enabled by 4D-printing by developing the complimentary hardware and software tools that can program materials to behave like plants.
Doctoral Research: Material programming for 4D-printing: Architected mesostructures for bio-inspired self-shaping
- Cheng, T., Thielen, M., Poppinga, S., Tahouni, Y., Wood, D., Steinberg, T., Menges, A., Speck, T.: 2023, Entwicklung bioinspirierter und selbstformender Orthesen per 4D-Druck. Orthopädie Technik, vol. 74, no. 1. [Online]. Available: https://360-ot.de/entwicklung-bioinspirierter-und-selbstformender-orthesen-per-4d-druck/
- Sahin, E.S., Cheng, T., Wood, D., Tahouni, Y., Poppinga, S., Thielen, M., Speck, T., Menges, A.: 2023, Cross-Sectional 4D-Printing: Upscaling Self-Shaping Structures with Differentiated Material Properties Inspired by the Large-Flowered Butterwort (Pinguicula grandiflora). Biomimetics, vol. 8, no. 2. (doi: 10.3390/biomimetics8020233)
- Speck, T., Cheng, T., Klimm, F., Menges, A., Poppinga, S., Speck, O., Tahouni, Y., Tauber, F., Thielen, M.: 2023, Plants as inspiration for material-based sensing and actuation in soft robots and machines. MRS Bulletin. (doi: 10.1557/s43577-022-00470-8)
- Wood, D., Cheng, T., Tahouni, Y., Menges, A.: 2023, Material Programming for Bio-inspired and Bio-based Hygromorphic Building Envelopes. In: Wang, J., Shi, D., Song, Y. (Eds.) Advanced Materials in Smart Building Skins for Sustainability. Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 1st ed. (doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-09695-2_4)
- Tahouni, Y., Cheng, T., Lajewski, S., Benz, J., Bonten, C., Wood, D., Menges, A.: 2022, Codesign of Biobased Cellulose-Filled Filaments and Mesostructures for 4D Printing Humidity Responsive Smart Structures. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. (doi: 10.1089/3dp.2022.0061)
- Cheng, T., Thielen, M., Poppinga, S., Tahouni, Y., Wood, D., Steinberg, T., Menges, A., Speck, T.: 2021, Bio-Inspired Motion Mechanisms: Computational Design and Material Programming of Self-Adjusting 4D-Printed Wearable Systems. Advanced Science, vol. 8, no. 13. (doi: 10.1002/advs.202100411)
- Cheng, T., Wood, D., Kiesewetter, L., Özdemir, E., Antorveza, K., Menges, A.: 2021, Programming material compliance and actuation: hybrid additive fabrication of biocomposite structures for large-scale self-shaping. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, vol. 16, no. 5. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ac10af)
- Özdemir, E., Kiesewetter, L., Antorveza, K., Cheng, T., Leder, S., Wood, D., Menges, A.: 2021, Towards Self-shaping Metamaterial Shells: A Computational Design Workflow for Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of Architectural Scale Double-Curved Structures. Proceedings of the 2021 DigitalFUTURES (CDRF 2021), pp. 275–285. (doi: 10.1007/978-981-16-5983-6_26)
- Cheng, T., Tahouni, Y., Wood, D., Stolz, B., Mülhaupt, R., Menges, A.: 2020, Multifunctional Mesostructures: Design and Material Programming for 4D-printing. Symposium on Computational Fabrication (SCF ’20). (doi: 10.1145/3424630.3425418)
- Cheng, T., Wood, D., Wang, X., Yuan, P., Menges, A.: 2020, Programming Material Intelligence: An Additive Fabrication Strategy for Self-Shaping Biohybrid Components. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence: Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems - Proceedings of the Living Machines 2020 Conference, vol. 12413, pp. 36--45. (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-64313-3_5)
- Kliem, S., Tahouni, Y., Cheng, T., Menges, A., Bonten, C.: 2020, Biobased smart materials for processing via fused layer modeling. AIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 2289, no. 1. (doi: 10.1063/5.0028730)
- Tahouni, Y., Cheng, T., Wood, D., Sachse, R., Thierer, R., Bischoff, M., Menges, A.: 2020, Self-shaping Curved Folding: a 4D-printing method for fabrication of curved creased origami structures. Symposium on Computational Fabrication (SCF ’20). (doi: 10.1145/3424630.3425416)
- Poppinga, S., Zollfrank, C., Prucker, O., Ruehe, J., Menges, A., Cheng, T., Speck, T.: 2018, Toward a New Generation of Smart Biomimetic Actuators for Architecture. Advanced Materials, vol. 30, no. 19. (doi: 10.1002/adma.201703653)
Thesis:
- ITECH Master's Thesis Topic – Programmable Matter, 2020/21
- ITECH Master's Thesis Topic – Programmable Matter, 2019/20
- ITECH Master's Thesis Topic – Programmable Matter, 2018/19
- ITECH Master's Thesis Topic – Programmable Matter, 2017/18
ITECH Seminars:
- Architectural Biomimetics, Summer Semester 2023
- Architectural Biomimetics, Winter Semester 2021/22
- Master's Thesis Preparation and Research Structure, Winter Semester 2021/22
- Master's Thesis Preparation and Research Structure, Winter Semester 2020/21
- Master's Thesis Preparation and Research Structure, Winter Semester 2019/20
- Master's Thesis Preparation and Research Structure, Winter Semester 2018/19
Workshops:
- Programming Material Intelligence - DIGITAL FUTURES 2018
- Dual Additive Manufacturing - ACADIA 2020
- Paper Programming - ABK STUTTGART 2020
- Selbst-formendes Holz: Material Science meets Architecture - GIRLS' DAY 2021
- Robots that build, feel, and interact with humans - GIRLS' DAY 2021
- Autonomous Origami - INCLUSIVE FUTURES 2021
Research & Projects:
- livMatS Biomimetic Shell @ FIT, University of Freiburg, 2023
- 4DmultiMATS: Personalised 3D- and 4D-Printing of programmable, self-adjusting and multifunctional Material Systems for Sports and Medical Applications
- Bio-based and Bio-inspired 3D-printed Shape-changing Material Systems
- Responsive Autonomous Surface Structures Inspired by Passive Multi-phase Plant Movements
- Smarter Smart Materials - Integrating Human Interaction with Environmentally Responsive Material Systems
- Adaptive Beauty: Transferring natural elegance to architected materials
Conference Presentations:
- 2023 livMatS Biomimetic Shell, Advances in Architectural Geometry, Stuttgart, DE
- 2020 Multifunctional Mesostructures: Design and Material Programming for 4D-printing, Symposium on Computational Fabrication, Boston, USA
- 2020 4D-printing of Self-adjusting and Multifunctional Material Systems, Forschungstag, Stuttgart, DE
- 2020 Programming Material Intelligence: An Additive Fabrication Strategy for Self-shaping Biohybrid Components, Living Machines, Freiburg, DE
- 2020 Self-Shaping Smart Structure: Computational Design and 4D-Printing for Surface Shifting Material Systems Inspired by the Butterwort, Living Materials, Saarbrücken, DE
- 2019 Smart Structure: Computational Design for 4D-Printed Material Systems Inspired by the Butterwort, EUROMAT, Stockholm, SE
Invited Lectures:
- 2023 Keynote: Material Programming and 4D-Printing for Bioinspired and Biobased Self-Shaping Systems, Tirana Design Week 2023, Tirana, Albania
- 2023 Solar Gate: Bioinspired and Biobased 4D-printing for Weather-responsive Smart Shading, Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Boston, USA
- 2023 Solar Gate: Bioinspired and biobased 4D-printing for zero energy smart shading, digitze wood, Freiburg, DE
- 2022 Hybrid Additive Fabrication: Self-shaping biocomposite structures, Formnext, Frankfurt, DE
- 2022 4D-printing for Bioinspired Self-shaping, Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob), EPFL, Switzerland
- 2022 WOOD 4D, Fakultät für Gestaltung, Hochschule Pforzheim, DE
- 2022 Material programming for 4D-printing, 4D Printing & Meta Materials Conference, Jakajima, Online
- 2022 Programming Shape-Change: From Bioinspiration to Autonomous Origami Structures, Hasso Plattner Institute, Berlin, DE
- 2022 Material Programming and 4D Printing, DigitalFUTURES, Tongji University, Online
- 2022 Bio-inspired 4D-printing, Walt Disney Imagineering, Los Angeles, USA
- 2021 4D-printed motion mechanisms inspired by Dioscorea bulbifera, Mécanique et Physique des Systèmes Complexes, ESPCI Paris, FR
- 2021 Bio-inspired 4D-printing, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, USA
- 2021 Material Programming for Self-Regulating Systems, Transsolar KlimaEngineering, Stuttgart, DE
- 2021 Self-Shaping and Responsive Systems, Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning, University of Michigan, USA
- 2021 Material Computation in Architecture, Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, Los Angeles, USA
- 2020 Expert Lecture: Tiffany Cheng, ITECH Expert Lecture, Stuttgart, DE
- 2018 4D-printing of Self-adjusting and Multifunctional Material Systems, Technologieland Hessen, Darmstadt, DE
- 2018 Digital FUTURES Symposium: Building Material Intelligence, Tongji University, Shanghai, CN
- 2018 USC Generation NEXT: Driven by Nature, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
Awards:
- 2022 The Future of Construction: Best Poster Award
- 2022 3D Pioneers Challenge: Finalist
- 2021 Purmundus Challenge: Finalist
- 2020 Forschungstag: 2nd Best Poster Prize
- 2020 Living Machines: 1st Best Paper Award