The 5th National Metamaterials Conference was held in Jinan from May 14–17, 2026. Themed "Material-Intelligence Symbiosis: Artificial Materials Meet Artificial Intelligence," the conference brought together leading minds in metamaterials research from China and abroad, serving as both a forum for intellectual exchange in the AI era and a gathering to build consensus and chart the field's future development. A delegation of 4 faculty members and 2 Ph.D. students from MSL at Tianjin University attended the conference, delivering 3 talks in specialized sessions, 2 presentations at the Graduate Forum, and showcasing 3 posters.

        Postdoctoral researcher Weiqi Liu from MSL delivered an invited talk and presented a poster titled "Reconfigurable Modular Origami for Tunable 2D Symmetry Groups," and won the Outstanding Poster Award.

        Ph.D. student Sibo Chai from MSL delivered an oral presentation and presented a poster titled "Panel-Driven Actuation Framework for Curved-Crease Origami," for which he received both the Graduate Academic Rising Star Award and the Outstanding Poster Award.

        Ph.D. student Kaili Xi from MSL delivered an oral presentation and presented a poster titled "Tunable-Stiffness Hierarchical Metamaterials and Their Stiffness Visualization," for which she received both the Graduate Academic Rising Star Award and the Outstanding Poster Award.

        This participation fully demonstrated MSL's innovative achievements and talent development outcomes in the field of metamaterials, further strengthened academic exchange with domestic and international peers, and contributed to advancing frontier exploration in metamaterials research.