Since leaving his job, Yao has immersed himself in mechanical design, programming, and robotics — all self-taught through library books.

"Multifunctional bistable ultrathin composite booms with flexible electronics," by Yao Yao and Xin Ning from Illinois, Juan Fernandez from NASA Langley Research Center and Sven Bilén at Penn ...

Father-son team develop array of impressive mechanised figures from cheap, second-hand materials, attract widespread interest ...