2025 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit

Symposium SF04-Magnetoactive Soft Materials and Devices

Magnetic materials integrated in soft devices play a critical role in the rapidly advancing application fields. Magnetoactive materials can be actuated by external magnetic fields to generate deformation, locomotion, and mechanical work and are essential to drive the development of new technologies and industries. Magnetoactive soft materials are particularly interesting because their magnetic and mechanical properties are coupled, and their interactions are nonlinear. They can be actuated remotely, without direct line of sight, and through solid objects or in confined spaces, as magnetic fields have deep media penetration without attenuation. The actuation can be optimized using oriented fields to generate desired magnetic forces and torques, thus enabling reversible and complex deformations. Soft magnetoactive materials consist, in general, of a polymer matrix (soft elastomers or hydrogels) with dispersed magnetic micro/nanoparticles (NdFeB microparticles, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, etc.) at specified compositions, particle orientations, and magnetization profiles to achieve programmable deformations and functions.

This symposium aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from soft robotics, microrobotics, and programmable matter, with a common interest in magnetoactive soft materials to present and discuss the latest developments in these fields. All experimental and theoretical aspects are of interest, including the design of new materials, actuation mechanisms, fabrication (including self-assembly and 3D printing), programmability, reconfigurability, multifunctionality, collective behavior, apparatus for actuation, modeling, controls (including AI), integrated sensing for responding to environmental stimuli, biomedical applications, assistive devices, augmented reality, and aerospace applications. Bottom-up and top-down methods for fabrication and structures with mechanical properties spanning magnetically soft and hard materials are of interest. Combining research on structures spanning the nano- to macro-scales at this symposium will improve our understanding of the design, material properties, and applications of soft magnetoactive materials.

Topics will include:

Design, synthesis, and processing of novel magnetic materials
Multiscale additive manufacturing (3D/4D printing) of magnetic devices
Mechanics of magnetoactive materials
AI, ML for magnetic materials design
Simulation and modeling of magnetoactive materials behavior
Magnetorheological materials and devices
Small-scale magnetic actuators and soft robots
Magnetic metamaterials and active structures
Magnetic microrobots
Magnetic actuation, control, and imaging of devices
Integrated actuation, sensing, and power in magnetic devices
Magnetic swarms and collective emergent behavior
Emergent applications of magnetic devices in bio/healthcare
Emergent applications of magnetic devices in soft robotics and sensing
Emergent applications of magnetic devices in information displays and haptics

Invited Speakers:

Polina Anikeeva (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
David Cappelleri (Purdue University, USA)
Jaap den Toonder (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)
Xiaoguang Dong (Vanderbilt University, USA)
Daniel García González (University Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)
Minjeong Ha (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Mokarram Hossain (Swansea University, United Kingdom)
Denys Makarov (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany)
Monica Olvera de la Cruz (Northwestern University, USA)
Patrick Onck (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Salvador Pané Vidal (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Josep Puigmartí-Luis (University of Barcelona, Spain)
Tommaso Ranzani (Boston University, USA)
Oliver Schmidt (Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany)
Simone Schürle-Finke (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Joseph Tracy (North Carolina State University, USA)
Jie Yin (North Carolina State University, USA)
Li Zhang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China)
Renee Ruike Zhao (Stanford University, USA)