Symposium Sessions

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

This symposium will focus on the latest advances in multifunctional materials employing multimaterial systems and multiphase materials to achieve added functionality to increase the efficiency, autonomy and lifespan of the system by performing multiple functions that would have been considered by designers as mutually exclusive. It will cover a broad array of topics ranging from novel material development, new materials modelling and design methods, to the latest advances in multimaterial fabrication to create the multifunctional applications of the future. Multifunctional materials are different from conventional materials as they can fulfill more than one functions. For example, composites, when incorporating with stimuli-responsive materials into their matrices, can morph and adapt their shape and properties upon the exposure to environmental changes to enable multiple functionalities, such as active sensing and actuation, self-diagnosis and self-healing, energy harvesting and storage. Multifunctional materials using multimaterial systems and multiphase materials are an emerging active research field due to their potentials of efficient use of materials and increasing material/structure intelligence, for a wide range of applications including smart/intelligent structures, adaptive flexible electronics, autonomous soft robots, smart energy harvesting and storage devices, and biomedical devices. The creation of multifunctional materials usually couples multimaterial and multiphysics responses to achieve multifunctionality. Examples include the material systems coupling between mechanical, thermal, electrical, magnetic behaviours. This symposium will include both basic science in new knowledge and new materials as well as the development for future novel applications. It will be organized into three parts, transitioning from one to another to highlight the importance of joint efforts in materials, modeling, design, fabrication, and novel applications. The first part will be on new chemistry and new materials that can lead to new functionalities, the second part will aim at the new understanding of process-structure-function relationship that leads to new models, designs and fabrication methods, and the third part will concentrate on new concept that can engage practical applications across a wide range of engineering fields.

Topics will include:

• Multimaterial systems and composites for enhanced intelligence and functionality (materials)
• Materials with multiphysics responses to environmental stimuli (materials)
• Active stimuli-responsive metamaterials and architected materials (materials)
• Self-sensing and self-healing materials (materials)
• Functional robotic materials (materials/design)
• Multiphysics modeling and simulations (modeling and design)
• Process-structure-function relationship (modeling, design, and fabrication)
• Topology optimization or AI-based design and fabrication (modeling, design and fabrication)
• Advanced manufacturing and fabrication (design and fabrication/novel applications)
• Smart materials in life science and biomaterials (novel applications)
• Active materials for sustainability and energy (novel applications)
• Materials for energy harvesting and storage (novel applications)
• Functional materials-based actuators, sensors, flexible electronics (novel applications)

Invited Speakers:

• Christopher Barner-Kowollik (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
• Michael Dickey (North Carolina State University, USA)
• Nicholas Kotov (University of Michigan, USA)
• John Rogers (Northwestern University, USA)
• Stoyan Smoukov (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom )
• Nancy Sottos (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
• Vladmir Tsukruk (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
• Richard Vaia (Air Force Research Laboratory, USA)
• Yujie Wei (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
• Timothy White (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
• Lihua Zhao (HP, Inc, USA)

Symposium Organizers