Manas Bhargava
Postdoctoral Researcher at ISTA
About me
Hi! I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, where I work in the Material Molli Lab with Prof. Jérémie Palacci. Before this, I completed my PhD with Prof. Bernd Bickel, focusing on the design and control of deformable objects. My projects ranged from building 3D lighting displays from folded PCBs to creating musculoskeletal soft robots with laser-controlled artificial muscles. You can check out my projects or my thesis to learn more about my work. I am currently looking for postdoctoral opportunities in soft robotics starting in Fall 2026, and will be excited to chat about potential project ideas!
News
[2025-09-15]: 
I have embarked on a new journey as a Postdoc in the Materiali Molli Lab with Jérémie Palacci.
[2025-09-01]: My journey as a PhD Student ends today as I succesfully defended my PhD thesis on the topic of Design and control of deformable structures: From PCB lighting displays to elastomer robots.
[2025-08-29]: Chris Wernke succesfully defended his bachelor thesis with us on the topic of Dynamic Simulation and Fabrication of Origami Robots. Congratulations!!
[2025-06-27]: Gave a talk on my Unfolding work at the Think and Drink Conference at ISTA.
[2025-04-15]: Presented our paper Mesh Simplification For Unfolding at Eurographics 2025 in London! Do check it out!!
[2024-11-14]: Our paper Mesh Simplification For Unfolding got accepted at Computer Graphics Forum 2024!!
[2024-09-19]: Yuhan Zhang succesfully defended his master thesis with us on the topic of Compatible Triangulations for Fabricating Deformable Structures that was co-supervised by me and Michal. Congratulations!!
[2024-06-27]: I presented my work on Design and Control of Deformable Structures using LCEs at the Soft-Hour Mini retreat at ISTA.
[2024-05-02]: Yuhan Zhang started his Master Thesis with the CDL lab in ETH Zurich and is co-supervised by me and Michal.
[2023-08-10]: Me and Marco presented our project PCBend at Siggraph in LA. Do check it out!!
[2023-08-01]: The code for our project PCBend: Light Up Your 3D Shapes With Foldable Circuit Boards is now out!! Check it out here
[2023-05-02]: Our Paper PCBend: Light Up Your 3D Shapes With Foldable Circuit Boards is conditionally accepted at Siggraph 2023!!
[2023-04-28]: I presented my research on foldable electronics at the Think and Drink Conference at ISTA.
[2023-03-07]: Gave an intro talk about my and group’s research at WinterGraph 2023 held in St.Johann / Pongau.
[2022-03-05]: Gave an intro talk about my and group’s research at WinterGraph 2022 held in Kaprun.
[2020-05-01]: Joined the Bickel Group. Looking forward to working on cool fabrication projects!
[2019-09-15]: Started my PhD journey at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria.
[2019-08-10]: Received my bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering with Honors and a minor in Electrical Enginerring
Publications
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Computational Design and Fabrication of Modular Robots with Untethered Control |
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Mesh Simplification For Unfolding |
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PCBend: Light Up Your 3D Shapes With Foldable Circuit Boards |