Optimizing the Synergy Between Architecture, Non-Equilibrium Processes and Materials

We will bring together a cross-disciplinary community of researchers from academia and industry, with the common aim of exploiting the complexity of non-equilibrium processes and architectured material systems to forge a new generation of compliant machines that can adapt to their environment. Together physicists, chemists, computer scientists, and engineers at the forefront of materials science, complexity science, and process control will discuss novel routes for capitalizing on the vast design space afforded by the synergy between soft materials, non-equilibrium processes, and structural design across nano- to macro-scopic length scales. By re-examining what is conventionally considered a machine, we will exchange perspectives on employing advanced materials, theory, modeling, and manufacturing to the creation of compliant material systems that process information, self-regulate, act on their environment, adapt shape, and harvest energy so as to revolutionize next generation of soft robotics, environmental sensors, smart structures, adaptive surfaces, etc. The aim of our GRC is to convene this diverse group of people to generate ideas to bridge interdisciplinary boundaries and to establish an innovative community at the forefront complex active and adaptive material system research.