Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Intelligent systems have the ability to sense their environments, analyze surrounding signals, and provide logical responses. While intelligence is common in complex biological systems such as humans and animals, traditional materials like bricks or polymers are considered static and passive, lacking intelligence. For several decades, researchers have been developing stimuli-responsive smart materials that can sense their environments and exhibit basic changes in their properties. However, in recent years, significant advancements have been made in designing stimuli-responsive materials with highly advanced smart functions, involving the creative design of their structures, the combination of different materials, and the exploitation of specific physical-chemical phenomena. The focus of this symposium is on the research of these stimuli-responsive smart functions, which contribute to the development of intelligent, autonomous, and self-powered systems. Stimuli-responsive functions can be classified into three categories: analytical, regulatory, and practical functions. Analytical functions include memory, information storage, logic gates, and computing. Regulatory functions encompass self-oscillation, rectification, amplification, and self-organization. Practical functions involve motion, controlled release, shape change, targeting, pattern formation, and communication. These functions are constructed using various materials, such as stimuli-responsive hydrogels, polymers, inorganic materials, 2D materials, and biomaterials. By combining these different stimuli-responsive functions, truly intelligent systems capable of sensing, analyzing, and providing practical responses can be achieved. These smart autonomous systems with advanced operations have a wide range of potential applications, from medical devices to environmental sensing and response systems to advanced manufacturing technologies.

Topics will include:

• Responsive soft matter with programmable functions
• Responsive soft actuators and soft robotics
• Responsive actions of stimuli-responsive biointerfaces and biomaterials
• Stretchable electronic, electrochemical, and photonic systems
• Smart functions of shape memory materials
• Stimuli-responsive memory systems with analytical functions
• Advanced functions of stimuli-responsive nanoparticles
• Advanced functions of 3D printed stimuli-responsive materials
• Advanced functions of stimuli-responsive 2D materials
• Advanced functions of dynamic and self-healing polymeric materials
• Bioinspired and biomimetic robotic materials
• Machine learning and data-driven design of functional soft matter

Invited Speakers (tentative):

• Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard University, USA)
• Kyle Bishop (Columbia University, USA)
• Michael Dickey (North Carolina State University, USA)
• Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne (McGill University, Canada)
• Yoel Fink (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
• David Gracis (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
• Bartosz Grzybowski (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
• Ryan Hayward (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
• Ximin He (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
• Thomas Hermans (IMDEA Nanoscience, Spain)
• Ghim Wei Ho (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
• Gong Jianping (Hokkaido University, Japan)
• Eugenia Kumacheva (University of Toronto, Canada)
• Joerg Lahann (University of Michigan, USA)
• Jennifer Lewis (Harvard University, USA)
• Katherine A. Mirica (Dartmouth College, USA)
• Xu Rong (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
• Ayusman Sen (The Pennsylvania State University, USA)
• Robert F. Shepherd (Cornell University, USA)
• Chih-Jen Shih (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
• Atsushi Shishido (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
• Metin Sitti (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany)
• Joseph Wang (University of California, San Diego, USA)
• Tao Xie (Zhejiang University, China)
• Hyo Jae Yoon (Korea University, Republic of Korea)
• Ryo Yoshida (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
• Xuanhe Zhao (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)

Symposium Organizers