Prof. Ryan D. Sochol’s Bioinspired Advanced Manufacturing (BAM) Laboratory pioneers micro/nanoscale additive manufacturing or “3D printing” strategies that advance the life sciences and biomedical applications to, ultimately, benefit human health and well-being.  These efforts rely primarily on two alternative types of 3D printing technologies: (i) “Direct Laser Writing”a two-photon/multi-photon polymerization-based 3D manufacturing technique with feature resolutions on the order of 100 nanometers; and (ii) “PolyJet 3D Printing”—a multi-material inkjet-based approach with feature resolutions on the order of 100 microns.  Learn more about BAM Lab research activities here.

BAM Lab News

Edwards, Grosvenor & Young Receive NSF Graduate Fellowships!

Sochol Receives Early Career Award from the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering

New 3D Nanoprinted Microelectronics Paper Featured on the Inside Front Cover of Advanced Materials Technologies!

New 3D Printed Soft Robotics Paper Featured on the Front Cover of Science Advances!

Recent Videos & Presentations

Recent Lab Photos

Meet the Team

Prof. Ryan D. Sochol

Prof. Ryan D. Sochol

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

Prof. Ryan D. Sochol received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2006, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009 and 2011, respectively, with Doctoral Minors in Bioengineering and Public Health.  Prof. Sochol’s postdoctoral training spanned the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Tokyo.  Prof. Sochol holds an affiliate appointment in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and a Fischell Institute Fellow appointment with the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, and is an Executive Committee Member of the Maryland Robotics Center.  Prof. Sochol received the NSF CAREER Award in 2020 and the Early Career Award from the Institute of Physics (IOP) Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (JMM) in 2021 and was honored as a JMM Emerging Leader in 2021 and a Rising Star by Advanced Materials Technologies in 2023.  His group received IEEE MEMS Outstanding Student Paper Awards in both 2019 and 2021 and the Hilton Head Workshop Best Paper Award (Runner-Up) in 2022.  Dr. Sochol was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure on July 1, 2022.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Alexander Guttenplan

Alexander Guttenplan

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Guttenplan received his B.A., M.Sci., and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2012, 2012, and 2017, respectively.  His postdoctoral training includes and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Xuan Liang

Xuan Liang

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Liang received his B.S. and M.S. from Tsinghua University in 2011 and 2015, respectively, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020.  He previously held a postdoctoral position at Carnegie Mellon University.

Sunandita Sarker

Sunandita Sarker

MRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Sarker received her B.S. from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2015 and her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 2021.

Ph.D. Students

A. Muhaymin Chowdhury

A. Muhaymin Chowdhury

Ph.D. Student

A. Muhaymin Chowdhury received his B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2022 and joined the BAM Lab in Spring 2024.

Adira Colton

Adira Colton

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Adira Colton received her B.S. from Cornell University in 2021 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2021.  Adira received a Clark Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, a 2022-2023 Microsoft Diversity in Robotics and Autonomy Ph.D. Fellowship in 2022, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2023.

Elizabeth Dolan

Elizabeth Dolan

Incoming Ph.D. Student

Elizabeth Dolan will be receiving her B.S. from Johns Hopkins University in 2024 and will be joining the BAM Lab in Fall 2024!

Bailey Felix

Bailey Felix

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Bailey Felix received her B.S. from Syracuse University in 2021 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2023.  Bailey received a Clark Doctoral Fellowship in 2021 and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2023.

Kimia Forghani

Kimia Forghani

Ph.D. Student

Kimia Forghani received her B.S. from Sharif University of Technology in 2022 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2022.

Chenchen Handler

Chenchen Handler

Ph.D. Student

Chenchen Handler received her B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2022.

Michael Restaino

Michael Restaino

Ph.D. Candidate

Michael Restaino received his B.S. from Virginia Tech in 2016 and joined the BAM Lab in Spring 2017.

Xin (Pannie) Xu

Xin (Pannie) Xu

Ph.D. Student

Pannie Xu received her B.S. from George Washington University in 2018, her M.S. from Johns Hopkins University in 2020, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2020.

Olivia Young

Olivia Young

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Olivia received her B.S. from Dickinson College in 2020 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2020. Olivia received a UMD Flagship Fellowship and a Clark Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, and an MRC Graduate Research Fellowship and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2022.

Master’s Student Researchers

Zachary Ferraro

Zachary Ferraro

Zachary Ferraro received his B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2019, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2020.

Declan Fitzgerald

Declan Fitzgerald

Declan Fitzgerald received his B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2022 and joined the BAM Lab in Spring 2022.

Ryan Halli

Ryan Halli

Ryan Halli is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the BAM Lab in Summer 2022.

Nathan Hill

Nathan Hill

Nathan Hill is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the BAM Lab in Summer 2023.

Janine van Niekerk

Janine van Niekerk

Janine van Niekerk received her B.S. from New York University in 2016 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2019.

Mark Rosser

Mark Rosser

Mark Rosser is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2023.

Contact Us

Ryan D. Sochol, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Affiliate Faculty, Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Fischell Institute Fellow, REF Institute for Biomedical Devices
Executive Committee Member, Maryland Robotics Center
A. James Clark School of Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park

Email: rsochol@umd.edu
Tel: (301) 405-6928

(Office) Room 2147 | (Lab) Room 2152
Glenn L. Martin Hall, Building 088
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742