Flexible Research Group
President Barack Obama joins recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for a group photo in the East Room of the White House, May 5, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Professor Hopkins waits in line to meet and shake President Barack Obama's hand at the White House
Samira Chizari and Luke Shaw receive $250 for the Poster Competition at the UCLA MAE Department Research Open House in conjunction with the Annual Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting for a poster titled, “Microfabrication with Holographic Optical Tweezers.”
President Barack Obama joins recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for a group photo in the East Room of the White House, May 5, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Best Industry Hardware Demo Award, received at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2024 Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS2024) for showcasing mechanical logic-gate examples at the conference’s hardware demonstration session, Atlanta, GA—09/24
2024 Compliant Mechanisms Award, $1,000 received at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Mechanisms and Robotics Conference in the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “Design Methodology and Physical Prototyping of a Binary Stiffness, Rotary Motion, Compliant Mechanism with Multiple, Decoupled, Degrees-of-freedom,” Washington, DC—08/24
Marquis Who’s Who Member, inducted by invited interview, Irvine, CA—06/24
Nominated by the Editorial Board of Smart Materials and Structures to contribute to the journal’s ‘Emerging Leaders Collection’ by submitting the article, “Mechanical Neural-network Metamaterials that Learn via Binary-stiffness Beams,” to be considered for the journal’s Early Career Award, Los Angeles, CA November 2022
Nominated as one of only two Candidates to be Voted on for the Next President of the American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE), Bellevue, WA, October 2022
2021 Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics (JMR) Best Paper Award, received by Prof. Hopkins for the paper titled, "Compliant Mechanisms that Use Static Balancing to Achieve Dramatically Different States of Stiffness," which was selected from among all JMR papers published in 2021 as the single best paper winner, Los Angeles, CA—04/22 (received virtually)
Nominated as a Potential Attendee at the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 2022 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (US FOE), hosted by Amazon, Seattle, WA—03/22
Prof. Hopkins made an Editorial Board Member for Micromachines, Los Angeles, CA—07/21
ASME Fellow, received by Prof. Hopkins from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Los Angeles, CA—06/21 (received virtually during the COVID-19 Pandemic)
Prof. Hopkins made a Guest Editor for a Special Issue of APL Materials, Los Angeles, CA—04/21
Poster Competition Winner, $250 received by Amin Farzaneh at the UCLA MAE Department Research Open House in conjunction with the Annual Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting for a poster titled, “Metamaterial with Fluctuating Poisson’s Ratios,” Los Angeles, CA—03/20
Prof. Hopkins made a Guest Editor for a Special Issue of Micromachines, Los Angeles, CA—01/20
Prof. Hopkins nominated as a Candidate for the Society of Engineering Science (SES) Board of Directors, Los Angeles, CA—11/19
Prof. Hopkins made an Associate Editor for the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, Los Angeles, CA—11/19
Editors’ Choice Article Award, received for the Precision Engineering journal article titled, “A Review of Micromirror Arrays,” Los Angeles, CA—05/19
UCLA MAE Boeing Graduate Scholarship, $7,000 received by Lucas Shaw at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angles, CA—04/18.
V.M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award, $20,000 received by Prof. Hopkins at the 2018 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science Awards Dinner for having demonstrated innovation in pursuing critical research, Los Angeles, CA—03/18.
Edward K. Rice Outstanding Master's Student Award, $1,000 received by Ali Hatamizadeh at the 2018 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science Awards Dinner for having demonstrated innovation in pursuing critical research, Los Angeles, CA—03/18.
UCLA Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Award, received by Lucas Shaw at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angles, CA—12/17.
Prof. Hopkins nominated as a Candidate for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, Los Angeles, CA—11/17.
Prof. Hopkins nominated as a Candidate for the Society of Engineering Science (SES) Young Investigator Medal, Los Angeles, CA—08/17.
Theoretical Contributions in Compliant Mechanisms Award, $500 received by Prof. Hopkins, Ali Hatamizadeh, and Adam Song at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Mechanisms and Robotics Conference in the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “Geometry Optimization of Flexure System Topologies Using the Boundary Learning Optimization Tool,” Cleveland, OH—08/17.
UCLA Charles E. Young Humanitarian Award, received by Lucas Shaw at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angles, CA—5/17.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Fellowship, received by Samira Chizari at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA—3/17.
Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award, $5,000 received by Prof. Hopkins at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science Awards Dinner for having demonstrated a record of offering students the best possible engineering education through innovative and inspirational teaching methods, curriculum development, and support of student academic efforts, Los Angeles, CA—2/17.
Prof. Hopkins nominated as a candidate for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Outstanding New Mechanical Engineering Educator Award, Los Angeles, CA—01/17.
2016 Freudenstein/General Motors Young Investigator Award, $1,000 received by Prof. Hopkins and Frederick Sun at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “Mobility Analysis of Interconnected Hybrid Flexure Systems Using Screw Algebra and Graph Theory,” Charlotte, NC—8/16.
Best Paper Award Honorable Mention, received by Prof. Hopkins and Frederick Sun at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “Mobility Analysis of Interconnected Hybrid Flexure Systems Using Screw Algebra and Graph Theory,” Charlotte, NC—8/16.
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), $250,000 received by Prof. Hopkins from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). He was honored by President Barack Obama at the White House. This award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers, Washington, D.C.—5/16
Prof. Hopkins nominated as one of two candidates to be the Director-at-Large for the Micro Nano Technical Leadership Committee on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE), Los Angeles, CA—05/16.
Poster Competition Winner, $250 received by Samira Chizari and Lucas Shaw at the UCLA MAE Department Research Open House in conjunction with the Annual Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting for a poster titled, “Microfabrication with Holographic Optical Tweezers,” Los Angeles, CA—02/16
Best Fast Forward Presentation Award, received by Prof. Hopkins and Lucas Shaw at the Compliant Mechanisms and Micro/Nano Mechanisms A. Midha Symposium of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “A Shape-controlled Compliant Microarchitectured Material,” Boston, MA—08/15
UCLA MAE Department Teaching Award, $3,000 received by Prof. Hopkins for outstanding contributions to the teaching mission of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA—06/15
Prof. Hopkins nominated to be one of two candidates to represent UCLA for the 2015 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, Los Angeles, CA—02/15
Award for 2014 Best Oral Paper, received by Prof. Hopkins at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE) for a presentation titled, “Flexure and Actuator Design for a High-speed Large-range Tip-tilt-piston Micro-mirror Array,” Boston, MA—11/14
Prof. Hopkins honored by the Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) at the “Invented Here 2014” Event, for patent US 8,394,015 B2: “Instrument Port for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery,” Boston, MA—10/14
Compliant Mechanisms Award: ‘Application’, $75 received by Prof. Hopkins at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “Synthesizing Soft Parallel Robots Comprised of Active Constraints,” Buffalo, NY—08/14
Prof. Hopkins made an Associate Editor for Precision Engineering, Los Angeles, CA—05/14
UCLA’s Faculty Career Development Award, $10,000 received by Prof. Hopkins to help facilitate research involving the creation of actively controlled microarchitectures, Los Angeles, CA—05/14
Outstanding Poster First Prize Winner of the 7th Annual Postdoctoral Technical Showcase, received by Prof. Hopkins with coauthor Robert Panas (who presented the poster titled “Lightfield Directing Array”) at Sandia National Laboratories during the Post Doc Professional Development Program for work performed on micro-mirror arrays, Livermore, CA—12/13
Engineering Science and Technology Excellence Award, received by Prof. Hopkins at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for work performed under the DARPA Materials with Controlled Microstructural Architecture project, Livermore, CA– 08/12
Best Interactive Presentation Award, received by Prof. Hopkins at the Compliant Mechanisms and Micro/Nano Mechanisms A. Midha Symposium of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE) for a paper titled, “Synthesizing the Microstructure of Thermally Actuated Materials Using Freedom, Actuation, and Constraint Topologies,” Chicago, IL– 08/12
Second Place Best Poster Award, received by Prof. Hopkins at the 12th International Conference of the European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (euspen) for a paper titled “Modeling and Generating New Flexure Constraint Elements,” Stockholm, Sweden– 06/12
Lawrence Livermore’s Industrial Partnerships Office Record of Invention Award, $50 received by Prof. Hopkins for submitting multiple invention disclosures, Livermore, CA– 07/11
First place winner of the Graduate Science MIT De Florez Award, $3,000 received by Prof. Hopkins for research pertaining to multi-degree of freedom compliant transmission mechanisms, Cambridge, MA– 05/10
Heidenhain Euspen Conference Scholarship, full travel and conference registration reimbursement received by Prof. Hopkins as well as the honor of giving a keynote speech at the 9th International Conference of the European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (euspen) on a paper titled, “Determining the Optimal Actuator Placement for Parallel Flexure Systems,” San Sebastian, Spain– 06/09
