Dr Lau's areas are micro-and-nano electro-mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), actuator design, micro-fabrication, multiphysics modeling and topology optimization. He has extensive experiences with various actuators, such as electro-thermal, piezoelectric, electrostrictive, and dielectric. Since 2004 at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, he has pioneered the work on a new class of polymer micro-actuators with embedding skeletons. His research on the polymer micro-actuators has been recognized with two best poster awards in the workshops of Micro-Mechanics Europe (MME) in 2005 and 2006. In addition, the work was selected and highlighted in the Virtual Journal of Nano-Science and Technology. A Dutch patent application on this inventive actuator design was filed in the Netherlands.
His current research focuses on polymer actuators (based on electro-active polymer), composite design, and their micro-fabrication