Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar

After billions of years of evolution, it is no surprise that biological materials are treated as an invaluable source of inspiration in the search for new materials. Bone, teeth, and spider silk are high-performing biological composites that possess impressive mechanical properties unmatched by their engineering counterparts. Many desired mechanical properties of engineering materials are inherently conflicting. On the other hand, natural materials can often avoid these fundamental compromises through their sophisticated hierarchical structures. Additive manufacturing, with its layer-by-layer fabrication capabilities, facilitates leveraging natural material design to create complex bioinspired architectures. In this talk, I will discuss ways we have mimicked nature's designs using simulation, additive manufacturing, and testing to learn how to create synthetic materials with superior mechanical properties (e.g. toughness, strength, impact resistance). Additionally, I will discuss how to further improve and adapt biological designs for engineering requirements through machine learning. In the future, this bioinspired machine learning approach will enable materials-by-design of complex architectures to tackle demanding engineering challenges.