Brown University
Materials by Design
www.brown.edu/conference/mgi-town-meeting/
Re: Materials Genome Initiative
March 28, 2012
I have much more appreciation for material research since attending the “Materials by Design” conference at Brown University. Previously, I thought materials were a snoozer since I see some very cool Abaqus applications at HQ. Dr. Allan Bower from Brown University invited me to attend the conference (at no charge, free food, oh yea!) to see new approaches in material sciences for industry, universities, and government. They covered all the based and had an industrial and university speaker for each domain. These are some of the highlights:
Cyrus Wadia, Assistant Director for Clean Energy and Material R&D, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Did you know the DOE announced (2102) a new \\\$12 million program for advanced research! This is in part of the President’s Material Genome Initiative (\\\$100 million, 2011). The focal point is to halve the monies and time to move new advanced materials from lab to market. It can take up to 20 or more years to transition a material from discovery to a commercial product. The lithium ion batteries for example were first proposed in the 1970’s but only achieved market adoption in the 1990’s. I love my iPhone and look forward to a ten hour battery life (oh please)!! In general it takes 10 years from discovery to market. Good examples are Velcro and Teflon. The President’s Material Genome Initiative is to make it 2x faster and 2x cheaper. One of the key components is collaboration with research and industry. This includes openly sharing content via internet.
Antonio Gozdz from A123 Systems.
They make lithium batteries for automotive industry. He said something insightful for researchers. “Researchers should understand how their work will be commercialized and develop technology with that in mind from the start!”
David Furrier from Pratt and Whitney
David is my hero! When I was sitting through many presentations, many speakers mentioned the importance of optimization in gaining insight of best results. David showcased how Pratt & Whitney used Isight. Yes, this is one of our products we develop and sell. He showed how they saved 19% materials using Isight (DOE and Monte Carlo).
Markus Buehler, MIT Lab
Ok, I must admit, one of the most interesting presentations was from Markus Buehler – MIT. He is focusing on understanding the mechanics of deformation and failure of biological materials (nature). He highlighted how important it is to understand the materials in biology. He gave an example of the sea sponge which is made of silica which is very brittle. But, based upon the structure, it is extremely strong. He has a very interesting web site here. I remember an interesting research project at a California University, understanding the structure of abalone sea shells. They are made of chalk (calcium carbonate) which is brittle. But, their composite (brick like) structure makes it extremely strong. Understanding these material structures can help develop new light weight materials.
Mark Verbrugge, GM Advanced Automotive Materials
Mark highlighted that they are focusing majority of their efforts in electrical energy storage solutions. He mentioned something interesting that automotive companies get around 5% ROI on sales at best of times! Topological optimization is used extensively in their designs now (remember, we have ATOM). But, something even more interesting is they are implementing material optimization. He showed a Z06 Corvette frame and pointed out the multiple materials (aluminum, carbon fiber) used to save weight and not sacrifice strength.
http://www.materialsproject.org/
See ya, Rene
