Soft, flexible materials play an important role in emerging technologies requiring mechanical compliance, ranging from displays and lighting to biological sensors and wearables. Advancements in organic and hybrid electronics have provided a unique opportunity to engineer mechanically deformable systems, ideal for biological interfacing and bioinspired applications. The performance, cost, stability, and lifetime of the materials are critical factors, which are important for the success of developed systems. Therefore, this symposium focuses on functional organic and hybrid materials, fundamental understanding of the material systems, and use of these in applications such as soft robotics and neural stimulation/recording devices which benefit from the compliant nature of the materials.

Multidisciplinary expertise is required for the development of bio-interfacing applications, including electronics, material science, biology, and biophysics. Bringing together scientists and engineers actively engaged in research and development in these fields will facilitate possibilities to overcome limitations of current materials and devices. This will in turn enable further advancement of next-generation materials and devices, resulting in new opportunities in the areas of medicine, healthcare, brain-machine interactions and human friendly robotics. This symposium will provide a venue for open discussion on the subjects of organic/inorganic material design, manufacturing processes, circuit designs, system integrations and applications. The invited speakers possess expertise over a range of material systems as well as the targeted applications. A strong focus of this symposium is to facilitate collaboration between academic institutions and industry.

biomaterial biomedical composite ductility elastic properties ionic conductor microelectronics organic polymer sensor