Organizers:
- Lining Yao, UC Berkeley
- Teng Zhang, Syracuse University
- Grace Gu, UC Berkeley
- Hannah Stuart, UC Berkeley
Description:
Morphing matter includes biological and engineering materials and structures with dynamic and tunable properties such as shape, color, stiffness, texture, and density. Examples include pinecones that open when dried and close when wet, octopus that camouflages by changing body shapes, textures and colors, food that changes shapes during cooking, and smart windows that dynamically tune color and surface roughness. When computationally designed and fabricated with well-defined objectives, they can have great potential in addressing a range of societal challenges in sustainability, accessibility, inclusive design, and embodied haptics for augmented humans. In particular, morphing matter that dynamically changes its shape and function in response to natural and ambient energy sources, such as light, heat, or humidity, holds the potential to revolutionize the field of biodegradable and electricity-free materials and devices, allowing for the creation of adaptive, responsive, and intelligent machines and robots. The design and fabrication of morphing matter are highly cross-disciplinary and often involve multiphase materials as well as multiphysics interaction, in which mechanics plays a crucial role. The aim of this symposium is to bring together leading experts from biology, design, materials science, mechanics, physics, and other related fields to promote research in this emerging field and foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation.
Topics of interest:
Topics addressed in this symposium will include but are not limited to:
- Biological and bioinspired morphing matter
- Computational design approaches, including geometrical, mechanistic, and AI-enabled methods
- Advancements in fabrication techniques and platforms, including 3D/4D printing methods
- Mechanics modeling, experimentation, and computation
- Applications of morphing matter in sustainability, healthcare, and other related fields