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About

David McGoran is a researcher working at the innovative intersection of digital fabrication, robotics, and creative practice, with a particular focus on art and design applications. His work explores how advanced manufacturing technologies and smart materials can be harnessed to produce lifelike, responsive structures and mechanisms. McGoran has made notable contributions to the development of "soft" structures incorporating shape memory alloy (SMA) micro-actuators — materials capable of exhibiting organic, lifelike movement — positioning him as a pioneer in the emerging field of bio-robotic art and design. His 2011 conference paper on digital fabrication of smart structures, presented at NIP 27, remains his most cited work with 15 citations, reflecting sustained scholarly interest in his technical and creative innovations. Equally compelling is his work on bio-actuators driven by live biological material, offering a provocative proof-of-concept "artificial heartbeat" for future robotic applications. Beyond the laboratory, McGoran has demonstrated a commitment to public engagement through the EPSRC-funded *Heart Robot* project, which challenged cultural perceptions of robots and stimulated public dialogue around social robotics research. His portfolio reflects a rare and imaginative bridging of engineering, biology, and the arts.