Our group investigates the mechanics of materials that belong to one or more of the following classes: (i) Active or smart materials, which deform and change their properties, by application of external stimuli; (ii) Soft materials, capable of undergoing large deformations; and (iii) Heterogeneous media, such as composites and polycrystalline materials. Our objectives are to gain a fundamental understanding of the mechanics of these materials, and based on that to promote the engineering of new materials with enhanced properties. Our approach combines theory, numerical simulations and basic ex