We are the Active, Responsive, Multifunctional, and Ordered-materials Research (ARMOR) Laboratory at UC San Diego, led by Prof. Ken Loh. We are a diverse team of graduate and undergrad students and post-doctoral researchers that work collaboratively across multiple disciplines to advance innovative research ideas and to develop new technologies. We actively partner with academic scholars, National Lab researchers, government agencies, commercial entities, and stakeholders to transition new technologies and ideas to practical use.

We conduct both fundamental and applied research related to physical asset protection, human performance, and human-structure interactions. We aim to train the next generation of multidisciplinary engineering workforce through our hands-on student mentorship and classroom courses that feature the latest research. We develop new stimuli-responsive and multifunctional materials, prototype new sensing, noncontact imaging, and wireless measurement technologies, implement machine learning algorithms and numerical simulations, and test prototypes in operationally relevant environments.

Our physical structures and human assets are susceptible to different types of degradation and damage that can adversely impact their health, safety, and performance. Our goal is for our technologies, algorithms, methods, and systems solutions to not only better protect its host but also to generate actionable information that can directly enhance and augment their functionalities and performance.