At Soft Materials Lab, we work with polymers and colloids. We study the actuation behavior of soft polymeric actuators in response to various stimuli, particularly water vapor, for potential applications in the field of soft robotics. Diving deeper we probe the various polymer kinetics using spectroscopic ellipsometry and X-ray reflectivity. In addition we investigate the self assembly of colloidal particles and also work with flexible thermoelectrics for energy generation.