Cynthia Sung
Associate Professor, MEAM; Secondary faculty, CIS & ESE
Cynthia Sung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) and a member of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) lab at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a Ph.D. (2016) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, advised by Prof. Daniela Rus, and a B.S. (2011) in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University. Her research interest is computational design and fabrication for robotic systems, with a particular focus on origami-inspired and compliant robots. She is the recipient of a 2023 ONR Young Investigator award, 2019 NSF CAREER award, 2020 Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D Scholars Award, and a 2017 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award.
Research Groups
Publications
Publisher IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Design and Control of a Tunable-Stiffness Coiled-Spring Actuator
Publisher IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Kinegami: Algorithmic Design of Compliant Kinematic Chains From Tubular Origami
Publisher IEEE Transactions on Robotics
Increasing Reliability of Self-Folding of the Origami Hypar
Publisher ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
Forward kinematics and control of a segmented tunable-stiffness 3-D continuum manipulator
Publisher IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Soft Hybrid Aerial Vehicle via Bistable Mechanism
Publisher IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Origami-inspired robot that swims via jet propulsion
Publisher IEEE
REBOund: Untethered origami jumping robot with controllable jump height
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Optimal structure synthesis for environment augmenting robots
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Animatronic soft robots by additive folding
Publisher SAGE Publications
Automated fabrication of foldable robots using thick materials
Publisher Springer
Leveraging compliance in origami robot legs for robust and natural locomotion
Publisher International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education
Programmable 3-d surfaces using origami tessellations
Publisher International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics, and Education (OSME)
Publisher Science Robotics
Functional co-optimization of articulated robots
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Interactive robogami: An end-to-end system for design of robots with ground locomotion
Publisher International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)
Self-folded soft robotic structures with controllable joints
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
News
Faculty News
Cynthia Sung Receives Army Early Career Award to Make Robots Move Like Animals
June 14, 2024
Faculty News
May 22, 2024
GRASP News
Student News
May 15, 2024
Faculty News
GRASP News
Student News
A Centimeter-Scale Quadruped Leverages Curved-Crease Origami
October 25, 2023
Faculty News
Cynthia Sung Receives 2023 IEEE Young Electrical Engineer of the Year Award
May 19, 2023
Faculty News
How do you make robots more accessible to non-experts? This Penn researcher has some ideas
April 3, 2023
Faculty News
Johnson & Johnson Announces Winners of 2020 Women in STEM2D Scholars Award
June 18, 2020
Faculty News
Six ASME Nominees Named for the 2017 New Faces of Engineering Program
February 24, 2017
Ph.D. Students
Research Staff
Alumni
Dr. Cynthia Sung and Sung Robotics
Research Areas
- Computational Design
- Origami Robots
- Soft Robotics