• Welcome to the Portela Research Group at MIT

    We are a mechanics & materials group interested in designing and implementing 3D architected materials to address current societal and engineering challenges

Highlights

About the Portela Group

Our group is interested in designing, fabricating, and testing novel types of materials from the nanoscale to the macro-scale. We strive to produce our own materials via advanced nano-to-macro fabrication processes, predict their response using numerical models, and test them using pioneering techniques.

Meet the Team!

We are a diverse team of scientists, researchers, and students interested in topics ranging from theory, to computation, to experiments of materials and structures.

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Updates and Announcements

Mechanics of micro-architected carbon-and polymer-based interpenetrating phase composites
A. Y. Chen, C. M. Portela International Journal of Solids and Structures (2025) link – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002076832500424X
Data-Efficient Discovery of Hyperelastic TPMS Metamaterials with Extreme Energy Dissipation
M. Perroni-Scharf, Z. Ferguson, T. Butruille, C. M. Portela, M. K. Luković SIGGRAPH Conference Papers (2025) link – …
Generative inverse design of metamaterials with functional responses by interpretable learning
W. Chen, R. Sun, D. Lee, C. M. Portela, W. Chen Advanced Intelligent Systems (2025) link – https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aisy.202400611
Mechanical Behavior of Nanocluster-Based Nanocomposites Made Using Two-Photon Lithography
J. Kulikowski, D. Delghandi, C. Wu, S. D. Figueroa, W. S. Cunningham, D. S. Gianola, C. M. Portela, …
Double-network-inspired mechanical metamaterials
J. U. Surjadi, B. F. G. Aymon, M. Carton, C. M Portela Nature Materials (2025) link – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-025-02219-5
Ultrahigh specific strength by Bayesian optimization of carbon nanolattices
P. Serles, J. Yeo, M. Haché, P. G. Demingos, J. Kong, P. Kiefer, S. Dhulipala, B. Kumral, K. …
Enabling three-dimensional architected materials across length scales and timescales
J. U. Surjadi & C. M. Portela Nature Materials (2025) link – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-025-02119-8
Experiment-informed finite-strain inverse design of spinodal metamaterials
P. Thakolkaran, M. Espinal, S. Dhulipala, S. Kumar, C. M. Portela Extreme Mechanics Letters (2025) link – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352431624001548
Tailored ultrasound propagation in microscale metamaterials via inertia design
R. Sun, J. Lem, Y. Kai, W. DeLima, C. M. Portela Science Advances (2024) link – Tailored ultrasound …
Decoupling particle-impact dissipation mechanisms in 3D architected materials
T. Butruille, J. C. Crone & C. M. Portela PNAS (2024) link – https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/153414

Incoming Graduate Students

The Portela Group is looking for talented graduate students from MechE, DMSE, AeroAstro and Chemical Engineering. Contacts us if interested!

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Research Highlights

Mechanics of micro-architected carbon-and polymer-based interpenetrating phase composites
A. Y. Chen, C. M. Portela International Journal of Solids and Structures …
Data-Efficient Discovery of Hyperelastic TPMS Metamaterials with Extreme Energy Dissipation
M. Perroni-Scharf, Z. Ferguson, T. Butruille, C. M. Portela, M. K. Luković …
Generative inverse design of metamaterials with functional responses by interpretable learning
W. Chen, R. Sun, D. Lee, C. M. Portela, W. Chen Advanced …
Mechanical Behavior of Nanocluster-Based Nanocomposites Made Using Two-Photon Lithography
J. Kulikowski, D. Delghandi, C. Wu, S. D. Figueroa, W. S. Cunningham, …

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