Bioinspired Structural Composites: Advances in Experiments, Simulations, and AI Based Design

Non-technical Abstract

This award will support a symposium at the 2022 Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS), entitled “Bioinspired Structural Composites—Advances in Experiments, Simulations and AI-Based Design” (SF12). The event will be held during May 8-13, 2022, at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center in Honolulu, HI, as well as during the Virtual MRS Spring Meeting during May 23-25.

The symposium will bring together many of the world’s leading experts in bioinspired composites research, which has applications in functional materials, defense, aerospace, and commercial transportation technologies. The event also emphasizes topics from artificial intelligence (AI) and simulation in chemistry, physics and engineering of composites that have not been covered in previous meetings.

The symposium will bring together leading scientists, junior scientists, and attendees from an interdisciplinary and diverse research community to foster cross-cutting idea exchange and new collaborations in the topical area of bioinspired composite materials and data-driven design of complex materials. The aim of the symposium is the integration of advances in multidisciplinary areas into convergent research efforts to improve the performance of existing materials and uncover emergent promising materials, including high-throughput and automated experiments, computation, and data-driven discovery.

NSF funds will help to broaden participation at the symposium and will support speakers and attendees with an emphasis on including women and under-represented minorities. Technical Abstract

This award will support the symposium on “Bioinspired Structural Composites—Advances in Experiments, Simulations and AI-Based Design” (SF12), to be held May 8-13, 2022, at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center in Honolulu, HI, as well as during the Virtual MRS Spring Meeting during May 23-25. The symposium aims at connecting scientists and engineers with expertise in different research fields related to structural and functional composites, such as physics, materials science, biology, polymer science, bioengineering, chemistry, mechanical engineering, and data science to advance cutting-edge research tools and design innovative materials for transportation, aerial vehicles, aerospace, electronics, and medical device technology.

Contributions will include tailoring material interfaces and hierarchical design, advances in characterization using electron microscopy (STEM, EELS, and electron tomography), scanning probe microscopy (AFM, AFM-IR, peak force, K-AFM, STM-AFM, C-AFM), fluorescence microscopy, spectroscopy, and nano X-ray tomography to visualize and assess morphology-property relationships at multiple length scales from atoms to meters. In addition, there will be contributions that focus on inspiration from nature, biology, and bioengineering will form an integral part of the symposium.

Recent developments in data analysis, autonomous optimization, multiscale simulation (quantum-mechanical, atomistic, coarse-grained) and AI for a better understanding of molecular and interfacial interactions, chemical reaction kinetics, growth of different phases (nodules, amorphous, crystalline, interdigitated), and property predictions will be presented. Through presentations and discussions, the symposium will foster advances in convergent research efforts that integrate traditional and high-throughput experiments, applications in medicine, data science, simulation, and ML methods.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.