From Lego to Carbon Fiber: A UCLA Engineering Student Turns Curiosity Into Makerspace Creations

Dec 16, 2025 UCLA Samueli Newsroom When third-year materials engineering student Cooper Pitts reflects on what sparked his interest in the field, it wasn’t circuits or chemistry labs. It was Legos....
3D Printed Carbon Tube-in-Tube Structures Garnered the Cover of Nature Materials

3D Printed Carbon Tube-in-Tube Structures Garnered the Cover of Nature Materials

A group of materials scientists, chemists, and modelers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Groningen (Netherland), and UCLA (Prof. Morris Wang) have created a new class of ultralight and stiff carbon tube-in-tube structures via a 3D printing technique called direct laser writing – two photon polymerization (DLW-TPP).

UCLA researchers develop a new class of two-dimensional materials

UCLA researchers develop a new class of two-dimensional materials

An artist's concept of two kinds of monolayer atomic crystal molecular superlattices. On the left, molybdenum disulfide with layers of ammonium molecules; on the right, black phosphorus with layers of ammonium molecules. UCLA researchers develop a new class of...