Chenying Liu

Origami Engineer/Roboticist & Oxford Sparks Ambassador

I’ve been so fascinated by origami, i.e., its origin as art, its magic in maths, and its potential for engineering! It’s a thriving area where I can combine the three topics in a beautiful way and try to make some positive and tangible changes to society. Before studying origami engineering at Oxford, I did my bachelor’s degree in Automation Science at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where I was exposed to maths, physics, and robotics – very well-rounded but not in-depth though!

I enjoy my research in origami engineering and am keen to explore its potential in different aspects of our daily life, e.g. designing robots from origami. I also want to make these scientific ideas more accessible to the general public – special thanks to Oxford Sparks! I’m passionate about outreach and access. Previously as the MCR academic officer of St Hugh’s College, I facilitated a series of talks with our graduate students known as Thirsty Thursday and Hugh’s Spotlight (you can watch an example of a Hugh’s Spotlight talk here). I was also a STEM ambassador for Oxplore/TCAT programme, during which I co-designed and delivered an academic taster session to Y9 students in Warrington.