January 2008: Discovery Channel - What the tech?
“Light Has More Intuition Than Some People I Know”
Now there's a lamp that is, literally and figuratively, brighter than him. Made with artificial intelligence, the AI Light made by London-based Complex Matters, a spin-off from University College London, changes shape and varies its intensity based on what's going on around it. If someone enters the room, the long range motion sensor is triggered and the light performs a small dance to greet its visitor. The shorter range motion sensor could be directed to react to people congregating around a breakfast table or sitting area, for example,where activity will cause the light to respond and move.

November 2007: BBC - Working Lunch
“Enterprise Week - Software Designer”
As part of Enterprise Week, Working Lunch showed a documentary about Complex Matters. The segment which aired November 15th covered Complex Matter's work with Assa Ashuach as well as its work both in the medical and aerospace arenas. The documentary ended with an interview with Complex Matters founder Siavash Mahdavi discussing his own personal ambitions as well as Complex Matters' plans for the future.

October 2007: New Scientist
“'Smart' lamp offers true mood lighting”
GENUINE mood lighting just took a step closer. A shape-shifting lampshade can monitor brightness and movement in a room and then gently adjust the amount and quality of light it emits. The motors, created by Sia Mahdavi of Complex Matters, a spin-off from University College London, start by randomly varying the shape of the lampshade. This produces a variety of different intensities of light at different times of day.

September 2007: TCT Conference
“Complex Matters MD Siavash Mahdavi presents at the tct conference and exhibition”
Dr Siavash Mahdavi was asked to represent Complex Matters at The Rapid Product Development & Rapid Manufacturing Event held by tct at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, UK. Together with Assa Ashuach, Siavash Mahdavi presented to an audience a detailed description of the AI Stool, AI Light and Osteon Chair; highlighting the ways in which aesthetics and engineering concepts collaborated to create an innovative product. Attendees included Williams F1, Airbus, Renishaw to name a few.

September 2007: The Engineer Magazine
“UK Innovator Awards 2007: Siavash Mahdavi”
Congratulations to Siavash Mahdavi who came runner-up in the catagory of 'Graduate Innovator of the year' at the UK Innovator Awards 2007. This award recognises excellence by an individual graduate, graduating in the last three years and resulting in significant progress for a technological innovation, product or process continuing from a project that ideally was begun at university.

September 2007: Financial Times
“Trans Forms”
Martin Creed's Turner Prize- winning on/off light bulb is out of date. Think intelligent lights, shaped like flying fish with floating tendrils, that morph according to different settings, need training to develop the five senses that allow them to alter their behaviour, and get upset in unfamiliar spaces. That is Assa Ashuach's new AI (artificial intelligence) light. Executive toy or surrealist aesthetic for our times? At Rabih Hage's innovative design gallery, the AI is shown with "Fly Light", which uses laser sintering technology but reminds me of a cross between a digitally designed dragonfly and a glow-worm, and a series of gently contoured broken red tubes and tunnels that are, in fact, tables and chairs. Using stress-analysis software to optimise material usage, Ashuach reduces these objects to their bare essentials. The results bring the surprise and humour of surrealism's biomorphic shapes to a computer age: only a skeletal Giacometti figure, it seems, could ever be suited to Ashuach's tightly wrought sculptural fantasies, which look as if they are about to disappear into space. The game, though, is the gap between perception and function. These pieces, which transform form and cross genres, are immutable: they are so finely tuned by software that change a few millimetres of their surfaces and they would collapse like paper. Their mock-fragility is part of the appeal; so is the mix of minimalist appearance, high-tech mechanism, and a lightness of being that echoes with the long optimistic influence of Miro.

September 2007: London Design Festival
“AI Light from Assa Ashuach in Collaboration with Complex Matters”
Rabih Hage will showcase the new collection of work by innovative product designer Assa Ashuach. His elegant pieces represent an idea in its entirety, seamlessly fusing design and manufacturing technology. These ephemeral forms defy tradition and present design as a sculptural aesthetic with an inherent functionality. Using a biologically inspired mechanism, the AI light has an artificial intelligence 'brain'. This structure morphs and generates new behaviour according to the space, light and movement. As an object it becomes accustomed to a new environment, it learns about the space where it is placed, once it's relaxed; the training can begin. It senses and tracks changes in the environment and interaction with human beings. Combining sleek physical elements and the non-physical elements of light and sound, his reductive work is compelling and unique, creating an ambiance and experience for each viewer through surface and exquisite forms.

August 2007: Online Optimiser
“Beta Launch of the CM Online Optimiser”
Complex Matters has begun Beta testing of its online service. This product endevours to enable a much larger and wide spread base of designers and engineers to have access to Complex Matters' technology. This Beta trial is the first stage in getting this product up and running, and initial tests have proven very promising. It is anticipated that a full version of the Online Optimised could be up and running before the new year.

June 2007: The Engineer Magazine
“UK Innovator Awards 2007: Siavash Mahdavi”
Siavash Mahdavi was shortlisted for the catagory of 'Graduate Innovator' at the UK Innovator Awards 2007. This award recognises excellence by an individual graduate, graduating in the last three years and resulting in significant progress for a technological innovation, product or process continuing from a project that ideally was begun at university.

May 2007: EOS International User's Meeting
“Dr. Mahdavi presents Complex Matters' philosophical approuch to design”
Complex Matters were invited to present to EOS's international clients about their take on maximising on the benefits of e-manufacturing. Complex Matters' unique approach was highlighted with respect to product and engineering design. Attendees included Toyota F1, 3T-RPD, Freedom of Creation and Foster and Partners.

March 2007: Milan Design Festival
“The product launch of the Osteon Chair and AI Stool”
March saw the much anticipate launch of the Osteon Chair and AI Stool by Assa Ashuach at Milan's Design Festival. The Osteon Chair which is to be sold under Assa's own brand was exhibited at MGX's gallery in Milan which also exhibited the MGX branded AI Stool. Both items recieved much critical acclaim and are now available for sale. The anticipate retail price for the Osteon Chair is 25,000 euros while the AI Stool can be picked up for a more modest 12,500 euros.

February 2007: EOS UK User's Day
“Complex Matters MD Siavash Mahdavi present the company's latest software”
Siavash Mahdavi was invited to be the only external speaker at the EOS UK User's Day. There he spoke about the CM Object Optimiser and gave an overview of the infamous collaboration with world renowned product designer, Assa Ashuach. Attendees included Airbus, P&G, Bentley and Williams F1 to name a few.

September 2006: Discovery Channel
“Printable Sportswear”
An episode of Beyond Tomorrow aired on the Discovery Channel which showed Complex Matters' contribution to performance footware. The episode also had a guest appearance by footballer and doctor, Tanbir Hossain.

September 2006: Creative London
“Osteon V1 Chair from Assa Ashuach in Collaboration with Complex Matters”
Produced by Laser sintering the Osteon chair is made of a cosmetic skin and intelligent internal structure. Like the biological bone mechanism and structure, the artificial intelligence software knows where to create the right support. Together with Dr Siavash Mahdavi of Complex Matters, Assa has managed to create a progressive workflow that incorporates stress analysis and intelligent tools as part of the design and production process. Like DNA code this new production format enables the perfect realisation of a virtual object. The entire chair is then made on a rapid prototyping machine.

May 2006: Financial Times - Technology Worth Watching
“Customised Footwear”
Finding the right pair of shoes that looks good, fits well, and doesn't result in blisters or bunions can be a challenge for anyone, but especially for those whose feet just doesn't fit the mould.

April 2006: The Independent
“Universities and business schools - never traditional partners - are breaking the mould and linking up.”
Mahdavi's research allows designers to combine materials in a much more detailed way than they have been able to before, so they can have very strong, heavy material at certain points and very light, less strong material at others.

February 2006: Washington Post
“If the Shoe Fits, Print It”
A new manufacturing process looks set to bring mass production to tailor-made shoes that can be built layer by layer from a 3-D footprint. First to benefit will be professional soccer players, who are to be given tailor-printed boots offering more protection.

February 2006: ABC News
“Tailor-Printed Fashion Sizes Up to the Stitch”
3D printing could herald a new era in garment manufacture when the technology makes its debut at this year's London Fashion Week.  Fashion designer Manish Arora will, for the first time, showcase the UCL (University College London) technology, which allows designers to translate their designs straight from the page into finished works, by-passing the normal manufacturing process.

February 2006: New Scientist
“Tailor Printed Shoes Will Offer Perfect Fit”
A manufacturing process that can print you a pair of bespoke shoes could put an end to ill-fitting footwear and help usher in an era of mass customisation.  The tailored shoes are built layer by layer using a form of rapid 3D printing called selective laser sintering, in which a laser fuses together particles of a nylon-based material.

December 2005: Architecture Journal
“Researchers Have Imbued Molecules With Intelligence”
Fiction writers have long postulated the emergence of intelligent molecules a billionth of a meter in diameter that determine their own shape in order to best serve their structural purpose. Two engineers at University College London have evolved mass production of materials into customisation to make this reality…

March 2005: The Economist – Technology Quarterly
“Material Benefits”
With Airbus's giant A380 airliner about to take to the skies, you might think planes could not get much better bigger and you would be right. For a given design, it turns out, there comes a point where the wings become too heavy to generate enough lift to carry their own weight. But a new way of designing and making materials could get around that problem. Two engineers at University College London, Sia Mahdavi and Sean Hanna, have devised an innovative way to customise and control the properties of a material throughout its three-dimensional structure…