Séminaire LTDS (ECL) en présentiel : Integrative Smart Systems: A Call to Action

Dr. Diann Brei
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Résumé + biographie au format pdf

All around us our world is undergoing rapid transformative change, from energy to mobility to manufacturing. To meet volatile needs, there is a growing demand for integrative thinking. Integrative thinking is systematically integrating disparate disciplines to effectively tackle complex engineering problems. For decades, the field of Smart Materials and Structures has fostered an integrative mindset – it is in our DNA. Yet, while our field has made great strides in research, successful transition and adoption of technology in the field still tends to be a challenge. While technologies based upon smart materials hold many benefits for industry, it has been a long journey to transition these into real products. The field of smart materials and structures is viewed as “enabling” or “emerging” spanning either a) new markets where the products are first generation without a clear application and there is an absence of design models present so empirical developmental methods must be employed, or b) developing markets where there are a few guiding models/methods but the products are not optimized and not reaching their full commercial potential. Even though the fundamental science is present for many smart materials such as shape memory alloys or piezoelectrics, the technology and industrial infrastructure is limited. Specifically, there are little workable design models and tools, engineering data related to material uniformity/reliability and the effect of environmental factors, and use history. Most importantly, the workforce is unfamiliar with the field and how to incorporate and utilize the distinct responses of smart materials to provide competitive products with unique properties. There needs to be a clearer path to transition all the progress made during the past twenty years of research into fruitful commercial products, especially within high-volume, low-cost markets. This presentation covers the strides that our lab has taken to address these design and development issues for transition of smart material technology to production including 1) targeted material research necessary to mature it for productization, 2) design of disruptive technologies providing a commercial competitive edge, and 3), supporting design methods and tools for faster transition into technology. All of these are necessary for a successful business case. This talk will discuss these efforts from a technological design and development perspective with application examples from several industries such as Google Liftware, General Motors and FDA fast track MEND technology. The importance of collaborative, synergistic mission-driven relationships spanning from basic research to device design into system integration will be highlighted as crucial for successful transition from emerging smart material research of today to competitive commercial products of tomorrow. Highlighting several integrative smart systems from the past to the future, this talk is designed to provoke a conversation within the community with the hopes to inspire the advocacy of our integrative thinking beyond our field to empower solutions to the most pressing problems of today.