Progression from Integrated Multifunctionality to Neuromorphic Networks for Autonomy

The Gordon Research Conference on Multifunctional Materials and Structures seeks to stimulate the discussion on this newly emerging design philosophy for materials and structures and to spawn the interactions between researchers from a wide range of scientific disciplines encompassing physics, mechanics, engineering science, chemistry, material science, biology, mathematics and now computational science and engineering. Interdisciplinary dialogue is essential for the development of multifunctional materials, structures, and/or material systems that have the ability to perform multiple functions through judicious combinations of structural properties and additional functional capabilities to deliver truly dramatic improvements in system-level efficiency. Inspired by biological systems that are inherently multifunctional our research community has successfully deployed several visionary concepts to create a new breed of multifunctional materials and structures, including "autonomic" structures that can sense, diagnose and respond to external stimuli, "adaptive" structures allowing reconfiguration of shape, mechanical and other functional properties, and "self-sustaining" systems with integrated energy storage and harvesting capabilities. As a result, there has been tremendous research progress in multifunctional sensing, actuation, computation, remote data transmission, morphing, threat neutralization, self-healing, regeneration, structure remodeling, structural power, and the nascent areas of neuromorphic networks, intelligent systems and soft robotic microsystems for self-learning and self optimization. Although progress has been rapid, a significant gap remains in our current understanding of how to seamlessly integrate these novel functionalities into the load-carrying civil and transport structures and to optimize the roles of interfaces and design/fabrication approaches. This conference will address the fundamental scientific issues underpinning the advancement of hierarchical multifunctional material systems from the molecular scale to the macroscopic structural scale.