Prof. Chen Yan: An Arduous Research and A Demanding Tutor

“Those who study origami must own a ‘flexible’ mind... You need to ‘cheat’ students into the laboratory with interesting models until they find the veiled truth…” Chen Yan, a professor and doctoral supervisor at Tianjin University’s School of Mechanical Engineering, joked as she showed cool origami patterns to the journalist, hearty laughter resounding through her office.

Chen Yan with a rigid-panel model.

Recently, Chen has welcomed her “bumper harvest” as she became one of the winners of the sixteenth China Youth Science and Technology Award and the second Xplore Beyond Prize announced a few days ago.

The research area she engages in is as intriguing as her personality -- origami engineering, an emerging frontier science. Put simply, the structure, shape, volume or surface area of a piece of paper are changed by twisting or stretching to meet diverse demands. In 2015, Prof. Chen proposed a new theoretical origami model of thick panels, thus putting the theory of origami into engineering applications. Her theoretical innovation solved the international problem that rigid thick panels were hard to fold, which has troubled the scientific and engineering circles for more than five decades.

Chen took up origami research “by accident”.

“I majored in mechanics as both an undergraduate and a postgraduate. But I turned to civil engineering when I studied for my doctorate in Oxford University. Because my tutor focused on expandable structures, I started to study structures and expandable structures by accident.” Chen felt fortunate to choose her research direction. “But there is nothing special about my later experience. I think myself lucky to be always able to devote to what I am interested in.”

Prof. Chen also introduced her magnificent research achievements concisely.

Usually, studies on origami are based on the presumption that the panel is of zero thickness. In real engineering projects, however, the thickness of paper cannot be ignored since it may make the structure difficult to tightly fold. As the existing theories cannot offer an effective solution, Chen thought out of the box and established a new theoretical model by replacing the spherical structure with a spatial one, thus solving the problem of rigid-panel folding.

“Origami is widely used in projects, large or small.” When it came to the application of origami, Chen talked with ease and fluency, “For example, the larger the diameter of a satellite antenna, the more powerful its functions. But it is a huge challenge in the design of the aerospace foldable structure to fold an antenna of tens of or even hundreds of meters length to put it in the rocket faring with a diameter of only 4.5 meters.”

Chen does not stop after solving the problem of rigid-panel folding and often encourages young researchers “to jump out of your comfort zone in academic research with courage”. She does as what she says.

In 2018, Chen moved on to a “Gordian knot”- the study of structural materials with excellent deformability and extraordinary physical properties.

What is this research for?

Taking pilots’ belt as an example, Chen explained, “The safety belt will stressed thin and become poor in protection performance and comfort when the plane works with a high acceleration. The origami structure serves to change the material distribution in the overall structure of the safety belt, thus making it more comfortable.”

Chen as a tough and persevering researcher

Half of the bookcase in Chen’s office were stuffed with all kinds of origamis models.

“I like pure researches driven by interests. Therefore, once an inspiration occurs to me, I must make it a reality or verify it. These models are like “toys” to me that provide inspirations.” Chen said, “It takes a short period of time to turn an idea into an initial model and I enjoy myself in this process,” said Chen, adding that the process only accounted for ten to twenty percent of the entire research, the rest of which was kind of “grueling”. “Then we have to do lots of formula derivation and theoretical collation. That’s to some extent, a bit boring. We have to be patient and get the work done in a conscientious way.”

Chen once spent nine years from 2010 to 2018 to complete a project on deployable polyhedrons with three students to assist her successively.

Looking back, Chen believed it worthwhile spending such a long time. She said, “Science has zero tolerance for sloppiness. So has research.”

Chen as a demanding tutor

“It is ‘painful’ to be my students. Besides providing an answer to my question, they have to show clearly how they reach that answer. I am ‘fastidious’ about the whole process.” Chen shared an interesting anecdote with a smile, “I once found a student used a wrong theoretical formula in his calculations, and I asked him to derive in a different way. While he was deriving with the numerical method, instead of finding the right formula, he encountered a strange phenomenon never seen before. The student changed his method again and finally found the right formula. He thought his work was done. But I asked him to further his research since the new method, as my test had shown, cannot explain that strange phenomenon. You cannot imagine how troubled the student was at that moment.”

“Aspiration has four good friends, a pure mind, a strong feeling of interests and passion, a willingness to cooperate and a sense of responsibility,” wrote Prof. Chen Yan in an article entitled“If Aspiration has friends”. She said that the four traits are also her “old friends” and that she hoped to introduce them to young scholars and students.

By Li Yan

Editor: Eva Yin