From Shapes to Systems: Rethinking Design with Topology Optimization

Date & Time: Friday, March 20th 2026, 6:00 pm

Cost: Free!

Location: UCSD EBU II Room 305

Closest Parking: Gilman Parking Structure

Abstract

Despite over three decades of research, topology optimization (TO) continues to provoke a mixed reception in the engineering design community. Lauded as a natural companion to additive manufacturing (AM), it is simultaneously criticized as impractical for real-world engineering design. What remains clear is this: TO is not a push-button tool that produces perfect, ready-to-manufacture designs on demand — nor was it ever meant to be.

Yet, in an era of generative AI and conversational design interfaces, where "optimal" solutions are increasingly promised with little more than a prompt, the expectations surrounding automated design tools are shifting. Against this backdrop, TO holds a distinct, and perhaps underappreciated, value: the ability to deliver creative, unintuitive solutions in domains where traditional design intuition fails.

This presentation explores the recent advances of topology optimization — not as a universal tool, but as an essential enabler for complex, multiphysics, and multifunctional systems. In simple, single-function applications, optimized results often align with engineering intuition, reducing the marginal value of TO. However, as modern design problems grow in complexity — requiring interdisciplinary integration and multiphysics/multiscale coupling— human intuition alone is no longer sufficient. Upon refection of the current research direction in the context of an ever growing class of complex engineering system, the presentation will highlight its capabilities and the substantial challenges that remain.

Speaker Bio

H Alicia Kim is a Professor in the Department of Structural Engineering and Program for Material Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, with affiliate appointments in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her M2DO (Multiscale Multiphysics Design Optimization) lab develops topology optimization and computational methods for multiphysics and multifunctional systems. She also leads the SHAPE center (Simulation & Design of Heterogeneous Architectures for Performance and Energy Absorption) working on multiscale nonlinear material design under the NNSA PSAAP IV program. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers and led research projects funded by NASA, DARPA, DOE, and multiple industry partners. Professor Kim has served on editorial boards of several journals including Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and has been actively engaging with the professional societies, Past Secretary General of the International Society of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization and former chair of AIAA MDO TC.