This IRG explores the concept of materials training, drawing inspiration from biological adaptation to develop materials that can evolve their properties in response to external stimuli. Unlike traditional materials design, where parameters remain fixed, this research aims to create trainable materials that modify their internal structure and functions through applied mechanical stress—similar to how bones strengthen under repeated use.

The focus is on soft materials, which have highly adaptable configurations, making them ideal candidates for imprinting memory and evolving properties through structured training protocols. The research investigates how different training methodologies can lead to emergent behaviors such as impact absorption, shape morphing, and multi-functional actuation. A key goal is to develop a systematic framework for designing trainable soft materials, leveraging interdisciplinary insights from materials science, polymer chemistry, soft matter physics, and biological systems.

The group is structured into three focus areas (FAs), each targeting a specific type of soft matter network:

• FA1: Macroscopic network-based materials (adapting structural links)

• FA2: Dynamic polymer networks (allowing node reconfiguration)

• FA3: Particle/gel-network composites (integrating both link adaptation and node reconfiguration)

By understanding trainability, learning, and memory in these systems, this research aims to establish new paradigmsfor materials processing, enabling materials that can be retrained and repurposed for different functionalities without requiring a full redesign.

^{Traditional materials design vs. a materials training approach and the three focus areas (FAs) of Interdisciplinary Research Group 1.}

The underlying mission of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will enable - through interdisciplinary fundamental research, innovative educational outreach programs, and directed knowledge transfer - the development and understanding of new materials, structures, and theories that can impact the current and future needs of society. The Center supports a broad-based interdisciplinary research program. The research is conducted in three interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs). These include Design of Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion (IRG I), which seeks to accurately model, predict, and determine how thermodynamics, phase behavior, and kinetics are modified at the nanoscale, and will use the resultant knowledge to design materials with energy and power-delivery capabilities far superior to those currently available. IRG II on Mechanomutable Heteronanomaterials aims to develop multicomponent polymeric systems with mechanical properties that can be changed on-demand for possible use in sensors and biological applications. Multimaterial Multifunctional Nano-Structured Fibers (IRG III) explores the design, fabrication, characterization, and physical phenomena of a new class of multicomponent nanoscale fiber materials containing conductors, semiconductors (glassy and crystalline) and insulators. In addition there are two Initiative Projects: Engineering Living Cells via Nanomaterials (Initiative I) and New States of Frustrated and Correlated Materials (Initiative II). The first initiative seeks to develop a fundamental understanding of how functionalized polymer multilayers can be integrated with living cells in a manner that preserves cell viability, and allows for new synthetically engineered functionality, whereas the second seeks to synthesize, characterize and examine the fundamental spin physics of new, single crystal materials based on a two-dimensional triangular and kagomé lattice. The Center has a strong, wide-ranging education program directed toward graduate students, undergraduates, middle and high school students and K-12 teachers. Emphasis is placed on including underrepresented minorities in these programs. The education activities enjoy the broad participation of MIT students and faculty and are closely linked to complementary programs in other MIT administrative units. The Center operates shared facilities, including 1) a Materials Analysis Facility, 2) a Crystal Growth and Preparation Facility, 3) an Electron Microscopy Facility, and 4) an X-ray Diffraction Facility. The Center has an effective industrial outreach program, facilitated by a relationship with MIT's Industrial Liaison Program and Materials Processing Center.

Motivation and Impact

Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic radiation could be a powerful tool for applications like biomedical and security screening. However, THz technologies significantly lag those in other wavelength ranges (i.e. Radio Frequency, visible, or near-infrared photonics). This is fundamentally a materials challenge: there is no single material platform that is simultaneously a good source, waveguide, and detector for THz excitations.

KEY CHALLENGE:
Material platforms tend to be well-suited for one THz functionality (e.g. sources, waveguides, or detectors) and poorly suited for others.

VISION:
Understanding and controlling the integration of different material classes allows transduction of THz frequency excitations across the interfaces (Aim 1), control of emergent THz functionality (Aim 2), and creation of hybridized states with fundamentally new properties (Aim 3).

^{THz frequency photonic integrated circuits would enable new technologies but are hampered by limitations in crucial components and integration challenges.}

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Harvard University supports interactive research in four major groups covering a broad area of condensed matter and materials science. Researchers in the group focused on new materials are concerned with synthesis, characterization, and theoretical studies of superconductors and superhard carbon-based materials. Investigators in the group concerned with interfaces focus on collaborative aspects of interface science including organic monolayers and thin films, wetting and nucleation, mechanisms of interface motion in amorphous materials, and characterization of semiconductor surfaces. The group investigating electronic and photonic nanostructures addresses size effects and new electronic and photonic phenomena in a variety of materials. The group of researchers involved with design and manufacturing issues aims to develop a new paradigm for choosing the optimum materials and processes necessary to manufacture a component. The MRSEC also supports the development, operation and maintenance of shared experimental facilities for materials research. It provides seed funding for exploratory research, has a minority fellowship program, and fosters research participation by undergraduates. The MRSEC administers an industrial outreach program which is likely to be enhanced by the activities in design and manufacturing. The MRSEC currently supports 23 senior investigators, 12 postdoctoral research associates, 9 technical staff members, 16 graduate students, and 8 undergraduates. The Harvard MRSEC is directed by Professor Frans Spaepen.

Vision:

• Become an international leader in plasmonics and organic spintronics research and education.
• Train the next generation of scientists and engineers.
• Create curiosity and excitement in science and engineering among the nation's youth.
• Attract the brightest students and researchers from all diverse segments of society.

Goals:

 

Plasmonics: Develop new plasmonic materials to enable unique capabilities across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Organic Spintronics: Develop new knowledge, materials, and devices realted to the spin degree of freedom in organic semiconductors.

Seed Program: Develop new areas of collaborative materials research at the University of Utah.

Education and Outreach: Establish a pipeline for the next generation of materials science researchers.

Diversity: Increase diversity among the materials science research community through outreach, student recruitment, faculty hiring, and mentoring programs.

Herman The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of New York at Stony Brook supports research in the area of thermal spray processing and associated materials. Thermal spray coatings are crucial to the economic, safe, and efficient operation of a wide variety of engineering components. The Center has a focus on key scientific issues which are likely to play a role in thermal spray processing. The research is carried out in two interdisciplinary research groups. One group integrates diagnostics and modeling of the plasma spray process in order to develop tools for generating process designs and intelligent control strategies. A second group concentrates on basic understanding of the relationship between processing, microstructure, and properties of the thermal spray product. Details of the microstructures will be linked through modeling to activities in the first group. Special emphasis is placed on measurement of mechanical properties and on application of a variety of sophisticated characterization tools. The MRSEC supports the development, operation and maintenance of shared experimental facilities for materials research. It provides seed funding for exploratory research and emerging areas, and fosters research participation by undergraduates. The MRSEC has strong industrial links and an educational outreach program from the pre-college to the graduate level. The Center currently supports 13 senior investigators, 3 postdoctoral research associates, 1 technician, 8 graduate students, and 4 undergraduates. The MRSEC is directed by Professor Herbert Herman. %%% The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of New York at Stony Brook supports research in the area of thermal spray processing and associated materials. Thermal spray coatings are crucial to the economic, safe, and efficient operation of a wide variety of engineering components. The Center has a focus on key scientific issues which are likely to play a role in thermal spray processing. The research is carried out in two interdisciplinary research groups. One group integrates diagnostics and modeling of the plasma spray process in order to develop tools for generating process designs and intelligent control strategies. A second group concentrates on basic understanding of the relationship between processing, microstructure, and properties of the thermal spray product. Details of the microstructures will be linked through modeling to activities in the first group. Special emphasis is placed on measurement of mechanical properties and on application of a variety of sophisticated characterization tools. The MRSEC supports the development, operation and maintenance of shared experimental facilities for materials research. It provides seed funding for exploratory research and emerging areas, and fosters research participation by undergraduates. The MRSEC has strong industrial links and an educational outreach program from the pre-college to the graduate level. The Center currently supports 13 senior investigators, 3 postdoctoral research associates, 1 technician, 8 graduate students, and 4 undergraduates. The MRSEC is directed by Professor Herbert Herman.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Columbia University focuses on organic/inorganic materials, with an emphasis on materials chemistry. The Center also provides seed funding for new opportunities in materials research. The Center supports efforts in materials education at all levels, including summer undergraduate research experiences and research experiences for high school science teachers. The MRSEC also supports shared experimental facilities that are accessible to center participants and to outside users, and has strong research collaborations with other universities and industrial laboratories in the New York City metropolitan area.

Research in the Columbia MRSEC is organized in an interdisciplinary research group that addresses the science of inorganic nanocrystal arrays within polymer or organic media. Participants in the Center currently include 12 senior investigators, 4 postdoctoral associates, 12 graduate students, 16 undergraduates and 1 administrative support personnel. Professor Irving P. Herman directs the MRSEC.

The intellectual focus of IRG 2: Engineered Living Materials is to develop methods to integrate engineered living matter with polymeric materials. In doing so, we will create new composite materials that are responsive to diverse stimuli and capable of generating complex, genetically encoded material outputs. Our long-term research goals are to develop techniques that will enable the creation of materials at the living/non-living interface, with the potential for use in biosynthetic electronics, chemical threat decontamination, therapeutic synthesis/delivery, and soft robotics, among other applications. To accomplish these goals, we will integrate genetically-modified photosynthetic organisms (e.g., cyanobacteria, plant cells, and algae) with polymeric materials through gel immobilization, patterning on flexible/elastomeric substrates, or deposition onto mechanically robust films. Within these materials, genes will be activated in response to a specific stimulus that will control material properties. Our proposed research goes beyond bio-mimetic or bio-inspired materials; living systems and polymeric materials will be synergized to achieve unprecedented control of material properties and function in the emerging area of engineered living materials. Fundamental challenges inherent to living materials will be pursued in the context of three research thrusts:

Stimuli-Responsive Biosynthetic Materials. Fabricate biosynthetic composite materials by integrating engineered cells into gels, 3D-printed structures, and elastomers to develop materials that are chemical factories. Current stimuli-responsive materials lack a diversity of inputs and consequently respond with modest material outputs. We will create materials that respond genetically to specific, diverse stimuli—e.g., chemical threat exposure, circadian cycle, and disease states—and produce a range of outputs, including threat deactivation, cyclical thermal insulation, and triggered therapeutic production, respectively.

Photosynthetic Electronic Materials. Pattern and synthesize polymer electronic materials using photosynthetic organisms. Engineered cells offer the ability to perform complex biosynthetic chemistry to form monomers for conducting polymers (e.g., thiophene or pyrrole), as well as oxidative polymerization catalysts (e.g., peroxidases). We will engineer plant cells, cyanobacteria, and algae to synthesize these components in response to light (optogenetics). These cells will be integrated into polymeric substrates by roll-to-roll manufacturing, gel encapsulation, and soft-lithography to yield biocomposite materials that can be photolithographically patterned into electronic circuits.

Auto-Regenerative and Shape-Shifting Materials. A single-step genetically controlled polymerization will be initiated by engineered cells to achieve auto-regeneration of damaged materials and material folding (i.e., polymer origami). Genetically engineered cells that produce olefin monomers and metal-free catalysts for controlled radical polymerization (CRP) will be incorporated into polymeric materials. Once activated, the engineered cells will produce all requisite material for CRP that will produce polymers with diverse mechanical properties. We anticipate using these composites to heal material damage (i.e., auto-regeneration) and to induce complex geometric changes by generating asymmetric forces through differences in mechanical properties.

Charge-matter Interactions in Bioinspired Supramolecular Materials

This IRG will develop active conductive supramolecular materials that self-assemble in response to electronic and other stimuli. While a variety of stimuli—including chemical, light, and mechanical triggers—have been used to control synthetic supramolecular polymerization, the interactions between charge and synthetic self-assembled systems are poorly understood. This IRG will support an integrated team effort to investigate actively assembling materials inspired by biological systems to seamlessly interface biology and synthetic electronic devices.

Research objectives will include:

1. design and synthesis of novel active materials fueled by electrical and other energy,

2. integrated computational and experimental mechanistic investigations of active self-assembly systems, and

3. experimental and theoretical characterization of the emergent electronic and mechanical properties of the active supramolecular systems to inform iterative materials design.

Building on this IRG’s strong and complementary expertise in materials design and synthesis, as well as experimental and computational studies, a highly interdisciplinary plan is proposed to gain fundamental understanding of charge-matter interactions in bioinspired supramolecular materials. This research will provide foundational knowledge in Synthetic Materials Biology for how to effectively interface living and nonliving matter for future technological development of artificial intelligence and bioelectronics.