The Programmable Matter group of the FEMTO-ST Institute is involved in building and programming distributed intelligent micro-electro-mechanical systems since 2006.

The Programmable Matter project is the leading project in this field and unites many Universities and institutes around the world working on this topic.

Our technological center, MIMENTO, is identified as a reference center for micro-robotics in the context of the "RENATECH" network.

Explore teams

A consortium worth of 17+ partners

Our teams

Programmable Matter counts 11 academic teams across 5 countries

FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

About them

Julien Bourgeois

Professor
Project leader

Julien Bourgeois is a professor of computer science at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC) in France. He is leading the computer science department (55 permanents) at the FEMTO-ST institute (UMR CNRS 6174). His research interests include distributed intelligent MEMS (DiMEMS), Programmable Matter, P2P networks and security management for complex networks. He has worked for more than 20 years on these topics and has co-authored more than 150 international publications. He was an invited professor at Carnegie Mellon University (US) from September 2012 to August 2013, at Emory University (US) in 2011 and at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010, 2011 and 2014. He led different funded research projects (Smart Surface, Smart Blocks, Computation and coordination for DiMEMS). He is currently leading the ANR funded project Programmable Matter and the ISITE-BFC funded project Building the Basic Blocks of Programmable Matter (B3PM).

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Benoit Piranda

Associate professor
VisibleSim leader

Benoît Piranda is associate professor of computer science at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC) in France. His main domains of research are distributed programming, physical and visual simulations and computer graphics.He proposes many distributed algorithms used in programmable matter and self-reconfiguration algorithms for sliding robots. His recent works around the definition of a new geometry of modular robot for the programmable matter are in the heart of this project.He is leading the development of the VisibleSim software which is a behavioral simulator of modular robots. This very powerful tool has been used to validate research results in 17 publications over the last 6 years.He is leading the project of refactoring of new blinky blocks, and the production of a huge modular robot made of more than 2000 connected blinky blocks.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Frédéric Lassabe

Assitant professor
Blinky Blocks lead

Frédéric Lassabe is assistant professor of computer science at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC) in France. He is head of the computer science teaching department (32 staff and 450 students) at the Belfort-Montbéliard University of Technology (UTBM), and member of the the computer science department at the FEMTO-ST institute (UMR CNRS 6174). His research interests are Programmable Matter, Network resources allocation optimization, and mobility analysis. He has worked for 15 years on these topics. He led funded and contract research projects (geographical analysis platform, indoor positioning systems) with european union as well as French and U.S. companies.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Hakim Mabed

Associate professor
Collaborator

Hakim Mabed is an associate professor at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC). He is part of the FEMTO-ST institute (UMR CNRS 6174) and the complex networks team where he does his research. He obtained the Ph.D. degree from the University of Angers, France in 2003; he received the M.S. degree from the University of Algiers, Algeria in 2000. His research interests are in distributed intelligent MEMS, mobile radio networks, optimization, self-reconfiguration, and mobility. He led and participated to many industrial projects such as SOES with DGA/SPOTI, AlgoPDF with DGA/CELAR and WiOPT with Orange Lab.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Abdallah Makhoul

Professor
Collaborator

Abdallah Makhoul is a Professor in Computer Science at University of Franche-Comté and a member of the computer science department (DISC) of FEMTO-ST institute.He obtained his "Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches" in Computer Science from the University of Burgundy - Franche-Comté in 2018. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Franche-Comté in 2008 and the research Master degree from INSA-Lyon in 2005. He obtained an Engineering degree in Computer Science from the Lebanese University, faculty of engineering II, in 2004.From 2009 to 2019, he has been an Associate Professor at University of Franche-Comté.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Pierre Thalamy

PhD Student
Past member

Pierre Thalamy received his M.Sc. degree in Computer Science with high honors from Grenoble Institute of Technology - Ensimag, France in 2017. He is currently Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, in the Computer Science in the Optimization, Mobility, NetworkIng (OMNI) team at the Department of Computer Science for Complex Systems (DISC) of Institut FEMTO-ST, France. He works under the supervision of Prof. Julien Bourgeois, and Assoc. Prof. Benoît Piranda. His thesis is about the design of efficient 3-dimensional self-reconfiguration methods for building programmable matter using modular robotic systems. He is involved in the Programmable Matter, VisibleSim, CO2Dim, and Claytronics projects. His current research interests include self-reconfiguration and locomotion using modular robotics systems. Within the context of the Programmable Matter project, he aims to improve upon existing methods of 3D modular robot self-reconfiguration, aiming to make interactive Computer-Aided Design (CAD) using this technology a reality.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Jaafar Gaber

Associate professor
Collaborator

Jaafar Gaber received his Ph.D. degree in 1998 from University of Lille I, France in Computer Science and engineering. He is currently researcher at the FEMTO-ST institute (UMR CNRS 6174) and associate Professor HDR of computer science and computer engineering at Universite de Technologie de Belfort-Montbeliard, France (UTBM). Prior to joining UTBM, he was a research scientist at CSI Institute in George Mason University in Fairfax (Virginia, USA). His research interests include modern distributed systems, including IoT, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, high-performance computing, reconfigurable, embedded computing and distributed/parallel algorithms. He has served as external expert for research and technology evaluation outside EU or as expert for EU Cost action proposals evaluation. His research has been frequently supported by European grants within EU FP6 and EU FP7 and industry. He is also involved in European EACEA agency projects. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Gwenn Ulliac

Research engineer
Collaborator

Gwenn Ulliac received the M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in microwave and microtechnology from Lille University, France, in 2001 and 2005 respectively. In 2006, he joined the FEMTO-ST Institute, where he is currently a research engineer in the MIMENTO clean room in charge of technological developments on lithium niobate material. His research interests include the fabrication and the technological developments of opto-electronic and acousto-optical devices (waveguides, bragg gratings, photonic crystals, phononic crystals, acoustic resonator…). Since 01/10/2017, he joined the University of Tokyo for a one-year assignment at VDEC / MITA Lab as part of an international exchange program between French and Japanese networks of micro-nano-fabrication clean-rooms.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

André Naz

Post-doc student
Past member

André Naz received his M.Sc degree in Computer Science with highest honors from the Grenoble Institute of Technology - Ensimag (France), in 2014, and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté (France), in the FEMTO-ST Institute, in 2017. His thesis work was about coordination in modular robotic systems and, more precisely, on centrality-based leader election, time synchronization and self-reconfiguration. This work included algorithm design and extensive experimental study, using both simulations and hardware prototypes. He co-authored 7 peer-reviewed international publications on these topics and is the co-recipient of the best paper award at IEEE AINA 2016. He is involved in the Programmable Matter, CO2Dim, VisibleSim and Claytronics projects. Beyond his thesis contributions, his software engineering work on the VisibleSim simulator and on the Blinky Blocks firmware reinforces the foundations of the Programmable Matter project.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Jad Bassil

PhD Student
Collaborator

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Thadeu Tucci

PhD Student
Past member

Thadeu Knychala Tucci is currently PhD Student in Computer Science in the Optimization, Mobility, NetworkIng (OMNI) team at the Department of Computer Science for Complex Systems (DISC) of Femto-ST. He works under the supervision of Julien Bourgeois (FEMTO-ST), Benoît Piranda (FEMTO-ST). He is involved in Coordination and Computation in Distributed Intelligent MEMS (CO2Dim), VisibleSim and Claytronics projects. His thesis is about representation maps for modular robots. More precisely, he works on data representation and data dissemination in modular robot systems. The aim is to combine these mechanisms to design efficient self-reconfiguration algorithms.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Florian Pescher

PhD Student
Past member

After two years of Preparatory Classes at the Grandes Ecoles (CPGE), Florian Pescher joined Centrale Supélec School where he obtained his engineering degree with a specialization in Interactive Systems and Robotics (SIR). He then completed a 5-month rotational robotics internship at the University of Colorado at Boulder under the direction of Nikolaus Correll and is now a PhD student in the Optimization, Mobility, NetworkIng (OMNI) team of the Department of Computing. Complex Systems (DISC) of the Femto-ST Institute in Montbéliard under the supervision of Julien Bourgeois and Benoît Piranda. The latter deals with the problem of reconfiguring autonomous micro robots.

FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Hicham Lakhlef

Associate proffesor
Past member

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

Dominique Dhoutaut

Associate professor
Collaborator

Dominique Dhoutaut is an associate professor at Femto-ST laboratory who has been working on various aspects and layers of networking, starting with ad hoc and wireless networks. His research is balanced between experimentation and simulation, and concentrates on large scale (in number of elements) networks, be it vehicular or nano-scale ones.

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FEMTO-ST / DISC / OMNI

FEMTO-ST / AS2M / MACS

About them

Philippe Lutz

Professor
Team leader

Philippe LUTZ joined the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, as Professor in 2002. He was the head of the research group “Automated Systems for Micromanipulation and Micro-assembly” of the AS2M department of FEMTO-ST from 2005 to 2011. He is currently the Director of the PhD graduate school of Engineering science and Microsystems with more than 400 PhD students. His research activities are focussed on the design and the control of MicroMechatronic Systems. P. Lutz received several awards of IEEE, authored over 70 refereed publications (32 in high standard journals), serves as associate editor for the IEEE Transaction on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), is member of several steering committees and is an active member in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Committee on Micro-Nano Robotics. He received the Engineer degree from the National School of Mechanics and Microtechnology (ENSMM) in 1990 and the Ph.D. Degree of the University of Franche-Comté in Automation and Computer Science in 1994. He was Associate Professor in the INSA of Strasbourg since 1994 until 2002.

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FEMTO-ST / AS2M / MACS

Abdenbi Ousaid

Associate professor
Collaborator

Abdenbi Mohand Ousaid received the Engineer degree in Automation from Ecole Nationale Polytechnique, Algiers, Algeria in 2008, a M.S degree in Automation Signal and Images Processing from Paris 11 University, France in 2009 and a Ph.D. degree in Robotics in 2013 from the University of Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris, France. From 2009 to 2014 he was a member of MICROB team of Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique. In 2014/2015, he was a Temporary Assistant Professor at the University of Versailles, physics department, France. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Franche-Comté/AS2M departement/FEMTO-ST institute. His current interest includes the optimal design of 3D micro-mechatronic systems. Now, he is involved in the development and the design of elementary blocks "catoms" in the context of Programmable Matter project.

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FEMTO-ST / AS2M / MACS

Dominique Gendreau

Associate professor
Collaborator

Dominique Gendreau obtained the Ph.D. degrees in automatic and production at the Ecole Centrale de Paris in 1991. He joined the University of Franche-Comté as an Assistant Professor of mechanics science in 1994. After converting theme, he became member of the Automatic Control and Micro-Mechatronic Systems Department of FEMTO-ST Research Institute in Besançon since 2002. He currently works in the micromanufacturing systems, particular in the modular structure design.He worked in the "Pronomia" ANR Project on the modular architecture. After he collaborated with the LIFC lab in the "Musine" region project, and now he has working in the second phasis the this project, named "Musine2". He will collaborate with a team in a new ANR Project named "Smart Blocks".

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FEMTO-ST / AS2M / MACS

Romain Catry

PhD student
Past member

Romain Catry received his Master’s degrees in Micro-mechatronics from the ENSIAME (National Superior Institute of Programing, Automation, Mechanics, Energetics and Electronics) of Valenciennes in 2017. He is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. at the Femto-st Laboratory of Besançon, University of Franche-Comté. In 2015-2016 he was a simulation intern at Bosch GmbH in Bühl, Germany for the automotive team. In 2017 he was a software testing co-op for the contact and non-linear mechanics team at ANSYS Inc. in Canonsburg, PA. His current interests include the design of micro-nano mechatronic systems. Now, he is involved in the development and the design of elementary blocks "catoms" in the context of Programmable Matter project.

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FEMTO-ST / AS2M / MACS

University of Michigan

About them

David Blaauw

Professor
Team leader

David Blaauw received his B.S. from Duke University in 1986 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1991. From 1993 until August 2001, he worked for Motorola, Inc. in Austin, TX, where he was the manager of the High Performance Design Technology group. Since August 2001, he has been on the faculty at the University of Michigan as a full Professor. His work has focused on VLSI design with particular emphasis on ultra-low power design, millimeter scale sensor nodes, high performance accelerators for cognitive and image processing and adaptive design. He has published over 550 papers and holds 60 patents. He is an IEEE fellow and a member of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) technical program committee.

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University of Michigan

Gordy Carichner

Research engineer
Lead developer

Gordon A. Carichner received the B.S.E. and M.S.E. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He joined Motorola, Inc., Austin, TX, in 1991, designing circuits for 16-b digital signal processors. He returned to the University of Michigan in 1998 to teach VLSI design and to support EDA software. In 2004, he joined Mobius Microsystems, Inc., Ann Arbor, where he designs digital and analog circuits for monolithic RF LC clock generators. He holds three U.S. patents with others pending.

University of Michigan

David Wentzloff

Associate professor
Collaborator

David D. Wentzloff received the B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1999, and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Since August, 2007 he has been with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research focuses on RF integrated circuits, with an emphasis on ultra-low power design. In 2012, he co-founded PsiKick, a fabless semiconductor company developing ultra-low power wireless SoCs. He is the recipient of the 2009 DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2009-2010 Eta Kappa Nu Professor of the Year Award, 2011 DAC/ISSCC Student Design Contest Award, 2012 IEEE Subthreshold Microelectronics Conference Best Paper Award, the 2012 NSF CAREER Award, the 2014 ISSCC Outstanding Forum Presenter Award, the 2014-2015 Eta Kappa Nu ECE Professor of the Year Award, the 2014-2015 EECS Outstanding Achievement Award, and the 2015 Joel and Ruth Spira Excellence in Teaching Award. He has served on the technical program committee for ICUWB 2008-2010, ISLPED 2011-2015, S3S 2013-2014, and RFIC 2013-2015, and as a guest editor for the IEEE T-MTT, the IEEE Communications Magazine, and the Elsevier Journal of Signal Processing: Image Communication. He is a senior member of IEEE, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, and Tau Beta Pi.

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University of Michigan

Hun-Seok Kim

Assistant professor
Collaborator

Hun Seok Kim is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research focuses on system novel algorithms and efficient VLSI architectures for low-power/high-performance signal processing, wireless communication, computer vision, and machine learning systems. Before joining the University of Michigan, Kim worked as a technical staff member at Texas Instruments (2010 – 2014), while serving as an industry liaison for multiple university projects funded by the SRC (semiconductor research cooperation) and by Texas Instruments. He currently holds 8 granted patents and has 10+ pending applications in the areas of digital communication, signal processing, and low power integrated circuits. Kim received his B.S. degree from the Seoul National University (South Korea), and M.S. & Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), all in Electrical Engineering. He is a recipient of multiple fellowships from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication (South Korea), Seoul National University, and UCLA.

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University of Michigan

Yimai Peng

PhD
Collaborator

Yimai Peng received the B.Eng. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2015, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, in 2017 and 2022, respectively.In 2022, he joined Qualcomm, Raleigh, NC, USA, as a Senior Engineer to work on circuit research and development for higher energy efficiency and robustness, for various of processors, servers, and IoT devices. His research interests include low power circuit and system designs in power management, energy harvesting, analog front end, and intelligent microrobot system.Dr. Peng was a recipient of the Dwight F. Benton Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

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University of Michigan

Jamie Phillips

Professor
Collaborator

Jamie D. Phillips received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1994, 1996, and 1998, respectively. In his doctoral studies, he made key contributions to the epitaxial growth and device applications of self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots, including quantum dot infrared photodetectors and lasers. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Sandia National Laboratories from 1998-1999, a research scientist at the Rockwell Science Center from 1999-2001, and joined the faculty in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Michigan in 2002. His technical interests and contributions are in the growth, characterization, and device applications of compound semiconductor and oxide-based materials for optoelectronics and electronics where he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on these subjects with an h-index > 30. His current research efforts are in the areas of photovoltaics for energy harvesting, HgCdTe infrared detectors, and subwavelength dielectric gratings for infrared optics. Prof. Phillips is a member of IEEE (senior member), ASEE, AVS, and MRS, and has received an NSF CAREER award in 2003 and DARPA MTO Young Faculty Award in 2007. He serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Electronic Materials.

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University of Michigan

LiMMS/CNRS, University of Tokyo

About them

Yoshio Mita

Associate professor
Team leader

Yoshio Mita is an associate professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, the University of Tokyo. He got his Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D degrees of Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1995, 1997 and 2000, respectively. After PhD, he was appointed as an assistant professor of VLSI Design and Education Center (VDEC), and was promoted to Lecturer at the Department of Electrical Engineering in 2001 and then to Associate Professor in 2005. Since 2012, Dr. Mita serves as a the MEXT Nanotechnology Platform UTokyo Nanofabrication site manager. His research interest include VLSI integrated MEMS.

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LIMMS

Eric Lebrasseur

CNRS researcher
Past member

Eric Lebrasseur received his B.S. degree in mathematics, his M.S. degree, and his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Lyon I, France, in 1991, 1993 and 1998, respectively. In 1999 he started to work in the field of MEMS at The University of Tokyo in Japan as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Since then, he has been involved in the design and fabrication of MEMS in various companies and institutes in France (Memscap in Grenoble, Femto-ST in Besançon), and Japan (UTokyo). Since 2017 he is working as a CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) project researcher on the French National Research Agency project ANR-16-CE33-0022.

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LIMMS

Naoto Usami

PhD student
Past member

Naoto Usami received his B. E., M. E. degrees in electrical engineering from The University of Tokyo, in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, The University of Tokyo. He is also a research fellow (DC2) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2018. In 2014, he had been serving as a sub project manager for realization of Deep Space Sculpture ``DESPATCH'' which was a part of Artsat project. His current interest includes antenna design, micro remote powering, micro and nano fabrication. Now, he participates in Programmable Matter project as an electrical engineer and is engaged in developing millimeter-scale catoms.

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LIMMS

Gilguend Hwang

Collaborator

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LIMMS

Kei Misumi

Technical assistant
Collaborator

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LIMMS

Carnegie Mellon University - Claytronics Project

About them

Seth Goldstein

Associate professor
Claytronics leader

Seth Copen Goldstein is associate professor at the University of Carnegie Mellon. His research interests include compilers and architecture related to distributed systems, and reconfigurable computing. He has been working on architecture, programming languages, and compilers for programmable matter. He has been a Co-PI on several research projects funded by DARPA. He has been a member of ISAT where he was a study leader or co-leader on several studies (2007: “Engineering Ensemble Effects,” 2006:“Realizing Programmable Matter,” 2002: “Nanometer Computing”) or a participant (“Manycore Abstractions for Machine Learning”). He is the leader of Carnegie Mellon University's Claytronics project on programmable matter. He has published more than 100 articles.

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CMU Claytronics

University of Liverpool / UK

About them

Othon Michail

Assistant professor
Team leader

Othon Michail is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Liverpool (UoL) since 2016. He is also a member of the research team of the Leverhulme Centre for Functional Materials Design and a member of the council of the Networks Sciences & Technologies initiative (NeST). His research interests are Distributed Computing, Algorithms and Complexity, Computability, Algorithmic Theory of Dynamic Networks, and Programmable Matter. In 2017, he started and is leading since then the "Programmable Matter" initiative at the UoL, an interdisciplinary collaboration between CS, EEE, the School of Engineering, and external collaborators. He has been awarded a Royal Society International Exchanges award together with Prof. Julien Bourgeois. He is currently supervising and co-supervising 4 Ph.D. students whose work is related to programmable matter. His work within this area focuses on formal models, the design and analysis of centralized and distributed reconfiguration algorithms, and feasibility and complexity characterizations.

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University of Liverpool

Paul Spikaris

Professor
Lead scientist

Paul G. Spirakis, Fellow EATCS, is a Professor in the CS Dept. of the U. of Liverpool and a Professor in the CEID Dept. of the University of Patras and leads the Section on Algorithms. He also leads the EEE-CS School initiative on Networks Sciences and Technologies (NeST). He is an international leader on Algorithms, Complexity, Distributed Computing and Algorithmic Game Theory. He is a Member of Academia Europaea and the President of EATCS. He has published over 430 scientific papers (156 in Journals and 276 in Refereed Conferences) with 9330-+ citations and an h-index 46. He is also a Member of the Europe TPC ACM policy board. Paul has been the chair of the EU ERC Panel of advanced grants in Informatics for 2017/18 and in 2015/16. He has participated and has lead his team in over 20 European projects . He currently leads an EPSRC Grant. He is a Member of the Leading Board of the recently established Leverhulme Research Centre on functional materials design. He is the Editor in Chief in the Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) Journal in Track A and also Editor in 6 other scientific Journals. Paul has been the Director of the major Greek Research Institute CTI for about 20 years and he is now a senior scientist of CTI. Paul has co-authored 2 scientific books of international circulation and 7 scientific books in Greek.

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University of Liverpool

Paolo Paoletti

Associate professor
Collaborator

Paolo Paoletti is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Control at the University of Liverpool. He is also a member of the Risk Institute, the Centre of Autonomous Systems Technologies and the Leverhulme Centre for Functional Materials Design. His research interests span mathematical modelling, control theory, biomechanics, robotics, sensing and machine learning. Dr Paoletti’s work has been funded by EPSRC, InnovateUK, H2020, Royal Academy of Engineering and industry (Jaguar Land Rover, Renishaw, a2e VC etc.) over several years and projects. In 2014 the EPSRC recognised him as "Rising Stars" (awarded to 10 UK scientists/engineers who are "tipped to lead internationally excellent research in the future"). He is leading the @LERT (@ Liverpool Engineering Robotics Technologies) lab, where state-of-the-art mechanical and electronic prototyping facilities, design stations and high-performance computing for numerical simulations are available for developing the next generation of robots.

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University of Liverpool

Igor Potapov

Professor
Collaborator

Igor Potapov is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science within the University of Liverpool and a Leader of the Algorithms, Computational Complexity Theory and Optimisation Group. His research covers a wide spectrum of Theoretical Computer Science, including automata and formal language theory, reachability problems in infinite state systems, computational problems in matrix semigroups and design of efficient sequential/parallel/distributed algorithms. He is a full member of the EPSRC College. His research was funded by EPSRC, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society, London Mathematical Society, Leverhulme Trust. At the moment he is a Co-Investigator in the EPSRC Centre for Topological Data Analysis (2018-2023) and on the £10M Leverhulme Centre in Material Design project (2016-2026) focusing on the design of revolutionary algorithmic methods for finding low energy atomic structures to obtain new materials. He served as a PC Chair at MFCS2018, DLT2015 and several RP conferences. He has over 90 peer-reviewed conference or journal publications in a synergy of traditional mathematical fields of study with algorithms and the theory of computation. He successfully supervised several postdocs and graduated 5 PhD students. Currently he supervises 5 PhD students working on theoretical and applied problems in computer science and mathematics.

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University of Liverpool

Abdullah Almethen

PhD student
Collaborator

Abdullah Almethen is a 3rd year PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Liverpool. He is a member of two groups, the Network and Distributed Computing Group and the Algorithms, Complexity Theory and Optimisation Group, at the Department of Computer Science. He is working under the supervision of Prof. Igor Potapov and Dr. Othon Michail. His research focuses on designing efficient transformations and reconfiguration algorithms for Programmable Matter; in particular, investigating the linear-strength pushing mechanism of modules in static environments. He has a publication in ALGOSENSORS in the area of Programmable Matter. Before that, he received a bachelor’s degree and an MSc, both in Computer Science, from Qassim University and East Stroudsburg University, respectively.

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University of Liverpool

Matthew Connor

PhD student
Collaborator

Matthew Connor is a PhD student at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Networks & Distributed Computing research group at the Department of Computer Science. He is supervised by Dr. Othon Michail and Prof. Igor Potapov. His research interests include Distributed Computing, Population Protocols and Programmable Matter. He has been working on these topics since October 2018, after he finished an MSc in Advanced Computer Science at the same university. He is currently investigating Population Protocols with Network Constructors. His goal is to find a way to characterise fast algorithms in this area.

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University of Liverpool

George Skretas

PhD student
Collaborator

George Skretas is a 2nd year PhD student at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Liverpool. He received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Patras and his research interests include Distributed Algorithms, Programmable Matter and Graph Theory. He has publications in ICALP/JCSS on the topic of programmable matter and he is involved in the "Algorithms and Complexity of Reconfiguration by 3D Catoms" project.

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University of Liverpool

Michail Theofilatos

PhD student
Collaborator

Michail Theofilatos is a third-year PhD student in the Computer Science Department at the University of Liverpool, under the supervision of Prof. Paul G. Spirakis, Dr. Othon Michail, and Prof. Piotr Krysta. His research interests include Distributed Algorithms, Graph Theory, and Machine Learning, and has publications on the topic of Population Protocols and Network Constructors.

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University of Liverpool

IPPT-PAN

About them

Pawel Holobut

Senior researcher
Lead scientist

Pawel Holobut obtained his PhD in robotics from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences (IPPT PAN), in 2005. In 2011 his research interests turned to modular robotics, after which he became involved in the Micromechanics of Programmable Matter project, 2012-2017, led by Dr. Jakub Lengiewicz. His main activities within the programmable matter group at IPPT PAN focus on algorithmic aspects of the operation of modular ensembles. He works on distributed algorithms for reconfiguration planning and localization, and also for prediction of future mechanical states of a system of modules - its overall stability and forces acting at inter-modular junctions. He is also interested in physics-based computational and mechanical limits for programmable matter.

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IPPT-PAN

Pawel Chodkiewicz

PhD student
Past member

Pawel Chodkiewicz has a bachelor’s degree in physics and computer techniques and a master’s degree in informatics obtained from the University of Bialystok, Poland. Presently he is a Ph.D. student at the Warsaw University of Technology. His scientific interests are in smart materials and structures. His current research efforts are mostly focused on the modelling of Vacuum Packed Particles structures, but he also contributes to the programmable matter project at IPPT PAN. His main activities in the PM project are the development of distributed algorithms for modular robots and carrying out necessary software adjustments to perform computer simulations (extensions of the Yade DEM open-source discrete element method system, and, recently, also Visible Sim).

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IPPT-PAN

Anna Lengiewicz

PhD
Collaborator

Anna Górzyńska-Lengiewicz graduated in mathematics from the University of Warsaw, Poland. She also followed a PhD track at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2006-2010). Her activities within the programmable matter project are related to modular-robotic scalable actuator structures. In particular, her investigations are focused on special effective reconfiguration scenarios from chaotic arrangements of modules into fully ordered actuator structures. The intrinsic difficulty of the task lies in the fact that modules inside a structure are compressed by gravity and may have difficulty moving using their limited-strength actuators.

IPPT-PAN

Michal Kursa

Assistant professor
Past member

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IPPT-PAN

Anna Macios

PhD student
Past member

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IPPT-PAN

Scenocosme

About them

Anais Ancxt

Artist
Collaborator

These artists overturn various technologies in order to create contemporary artworks.

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Scenocosme

Grégory Lasserre

Artist
Collaborator

These artists overturn various technologies in order to create contemporary artworks.

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Scenocosme

LIB / Laboratoire d'Informatique de Bourgogne

About them

Olivier Togni

Professor
Team leader

Olivier Togni received his M.Sc. degree in computer science from University of Bordeaux I, France in 1994 and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from University of Bordeaux I in 1998.Currently, he is a professor at University of Burgundy, France, and member of the Electronics, Informatics and Image Laboratory (LE2I) in which he leads the « Combinatorics, Networking and Data Science » group. He his also at the head of the Computer Science Master program.He has published more than 70 refereed journal and conference papers. His research interest covers graph theory and network algorithms and protocols. He took part in several research projects (RNRT \@IRS, MathSTIC, PEPS STRATES, PEPS SEISME, etc).His contribution to the B3PM project is on graph theory for distributed systems and the use of emerging IP technologies.

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LIB

Nader Mbarek

Associate professor
Past member

Nader MBAREK received his HDR degree in computer science from the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté in 2017, his PhD degree in computer science from the University of Bordeaux in 2007 and his M.S. in Networking from the University of Paris 6 in 2004. Currently, he is an associate professor at the ESIREM engineering school within the University of Burgundy. He leads the RAMoN project at the LE2I laboratory. This project concerns Service Level (QoS, Mobility and Security) guarantee and self-management in IP networks. He is a reviewer for international journals and conferences and he serves as an expert for the French National Research Agency (ANR). He is editor of a one book and has authored several book chapters and more than 50 international publications. He has been involved in several research projects (IP-SIG; SWAN; DIAFORUS; B3BPM) as well as grants supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the CNES and the council of Burgundy.

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LIB

Wahabou Abdou

Associate professor
Collaborator

Wahabou Abdou received his MSc degree in computer science (2008) and his PhD degree (2011) from University of Franche-Comté, France. In 2013-2014 he worked on ViSiDiA project at the University of Bordeaux. This project proposes tools for simulating and visualizing distributed algorithms. He is currently an associate professor at ESIREM - University of Burgundy (Engineering College of Material science / Computer science & Electronics). He is the head of ESIREM's international department.He carries out his research at the LE2I lab. He is particularly interested in efficient communication protocols in wireless networks, distributed algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques. He participates in several research projects related to smart environments (smart buildings, smart cities, etc.)He coordinates the B3PM project at the LE2I side.

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LIB

Nicolas Gastineau

Post-doc
Past member

Nicolas Gastineau received his M.Sc degree in Mathematical logic from the University Paris Diderot in 2011, and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bourgogne (France), in both the Le2I Institute (Dijon) and the Liris institute (Lyon), in 2014.His research interests include graphs theorical problems, networks optimization problems and social networks analysis. He was the author of numerous journal papers about coloring problems with distance constraints.In the field of graph theory, he has published, so far, 7 articles in international journals and has spoken in more than 12 conferences.He currently working on the ISITE-BFC funded project Building the Basic Blocks of Programmable Matter (B3PM). In this project, his research interests are, mainly, in self-configuration problems and leader election problems.

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LIB

LIG / Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble

About them

Yann Laurillau

Associate professor
Team leader

Yann Laurillau is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University Grenoble-Alpes. His research is about Human-Computer Interfaces, he is part of the Engineering Human-Computer Interaction (EHCI team) of the Laboratory of Informatics of Grenoble (LIG).For a few years, his research has been focusing on the design of persuasive interactive systems and sustainable HCI. His research mainly targets residential homes and offices through the design of novel user interfaces aiming at supporting inhabitants to adopt sustainable habits. Many results have been published in the scientific community.

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LIG

Céline Coutrix

Senior researcher
Collaborator

Céline Coutrix is a CNRS researcher in the HCI Engineering research group at Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble in France. Her current research in HCI is in the design and software development of interactive systems merging physical and digital worlds. She is the author of the Mixed Interaction Model and she has developed several physical-digital systems, some of them in collaboration with artists and designers. Concurrently, she is an external researcher in the research and creation program at EnsadLab.

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LIG

Laura Pruszko

PhD Student
Collaborator

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LIG

Cornell University

About them

Nils Napp

Assistant professor
Collaborator

His research focuses on design and control strategies for systems that operate with uncertainty. Evolved biological systems reliably work in cluttered, unstructured, and fluctuating environments, and often do so with a baffling lack of global information, planning, and communication. Their approaches seem to focus on self-organization, managing noise created by many interacting components, and using distributed reactive behaviors as feedback to adapt their strategies. In his group, they apply these biological guiding principles to develop algorithms and build robots that can operate reliably in messy and unstructured real-world environments.

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Cornnel University

University of Luxembourg

About them

Stéphane Bordas

Full professor
Team leader

His research area is known as Computational Mechanics. I focus on free boundary problems, i.e. problems where part of or the whole boundary is unknown. For example, I have worked on problems involving topological changes or relatively complex geometries, such as crack propagation, delamination, biofilm growth, cutting in soft tissue. Within this field, I concentrate particularly on:Method development (enriched/extended finite elements, meshfree methods, smooth strain finite elements) to reduce the mesh generation burden when treating complex or evolving geometries/topologiesA posteriori error estimation, aiming at controlling the approximation error during simulations and thus focusing the computational effort where it is really requiredIsogeometric analysis with boundary elements, aiming at simplifying the link between Computer Aided Design and Numerical Analysis (idea from the paper of TJR Hughes in 2005)Academic research/industrial applications: bridging the gap (porting novel methods to industrial codes, real-world applications of computational mechanics and novel method development)

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University of Luxembourg

Jakub Lengiewicz

Post-doc researcher
Team leader

Jakub Lengiewicz graduated in informatics from the University of Warsaw, Poland. He received the Ph.D. degree in mechanics (computational methods in contact mechanics) from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPPT PAN), Warsaw, Poland, in 2009. In 2010 he has started a programmable matter project at IPPT, of which he is the leader. So far, he earned two research grants on this subject (over 300K Euro in total). In 2018 he was awarded an MSCA Individual Fellowship with the University of Luxembourg as the host, where he will continue his investigations towards effective reconfiguration planning and control of programmable matter.

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University of Luxembourg

Our partners

Programmable Matter relies on 5 industrials partners

Phigi

About them

Rémy Tribhout

Research engineer
CEO

Rémy Tribhout is a research engineer in the Optimization, Mobility, NetworkIng (OMNI) team at the Department of Computer Science for Complex Systems (DISC) of FEMTO-ST Institute, University of Franche-Comté (UFC) in France. His work focuses on the Programmable Matter project which follows the Claytronic Atom project from the Carnegie Mellon University. He received his M.S. degree in computer science and telecommunications from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA), Toulouse, France, in 2016.He worked 4 years at Thales SIX GTS with 3 years spent as a Systems Engineer expatriate in Panama for the project Metro de Panama Linea 2. Since 2021, he leads the startup project Phigi, which develops an interactive clay made of thousands of microbots that self-assemble into any shape, facilitating the collaborative design of industrial products, in collaboration with the University of Michigan and the FEMTO-ST Institute.

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Phigi

Amine Chafik

Research engineer
Collaborator

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Phigi

Cubeworks

About them

Gyouho Kim

PhD
CEO

System-level design and integration of ultra-low power ICs in the context of next generation IoT wireless sensors.

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Cubeworks

ZhiYoong Foo

PhD
CTO

Currently involved in Millimeter Scale Wireless Sensing Nodes. Ongoing efforts to develop and integrate system level components to achieve smartdust type computing. Components include Ultra Low Power Processors, Volatile and Non-Volatile Memories, System Level Power Management, various sensing modalities including Temperature Sensing, Capacitance Sensing, Analog Voltage Sensing, Wireless Communication, Low Power System Inter-die Communication, System Energy Harvesting.

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Cubeworks

Percipio Robotics

About them

David Hériban

Research engineer
CEO

David Hériban received the master's degree in mechanical engineering from ENSMM (Micro Mechanical Engineering School) and the master's degree in micromechatronics and microrobotics from the University of Franche Comté. He is the founder and CEO of Percipio Robotics, a five years old French company specialized in micro robotic system design and production for industrial applications. He worked for four years in FEMTO-ST Engineering Science Institute, to design and build a micromanipulation robotic system to handle 10 to 100 μ m sized objects. Then he has been trained in business development during two years to finally create the technological startup Percipio Robotics in 2011.

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Percipio Robotics