R&T Forum: Bioinspired Material Design for Sustainable Manufacturing

Join SyracuseCoE for our March Research & Technology Forum: Bioinspired Material Design for Sustainable Manufacturing!

Dr. Zhao Qin, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University, will give a talk on his team’s research on innovative, bio-inspired materials.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals outline 17 interconnected grand challenges that represent areas where urgent action is required to safeguard the well-being of all people and the planet. Biology is at the heart of many of these goals – from sustainable manufacturing and agriculture to energy, biomedical sciences, pollution treatment and climate change strategy.

Natural materials exhibit fascinating functions (e.g., mechanical strength, energy efficiency, environmentally friendly, tunability) at multiple scale levels. Technology of these materials, including revealing the hidden gene-structure-function relationship and innovative direct application, is crucial to accelerate the transition from a petroleum-based conventional development to a sustainable and circular development.

Dr. Qin’s Laboratory for Multiscale Material Modeling focuses on experimental characterization of the microstructures of these biomaterials, building multiscale physical models to reveal the structure-function relationship and carry out bioinspired design and optimization with generative AI. For this talk, Dr. Qin will give examples (e.g., bone, bamboo, mycelium) to introduce recent bioinspired composites studies for strong, tough material with thermal insulation.

His research has identified that instead of overall chemistry and molecular ratio, mesoscopic features, including material distribution and interfacial interaction, significantly affect the strength and toughness of the composites. The knowledge learned from bio-systems is validated using multi-material 3D printing. Dr. Qin’s team is applying these research techniques to explore large-scale applications in building, agriculture, and energy.

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