A visioning event convened in July 2023 by Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA), an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate, brought together 55 researchers, industry leaders, policymakers and investors to identify innovative, less-explored lines of research that can transform all phases of materials’ lifespan, focusing on materials for construction like concrete, chemicals and polymers. The results formed a new report, “Engineering Materials for a Sustainable Future,” which will be released in the coming weeks.

Relevant engineering research directions will be addressed in a webinar hosted by ERVA: Engineering Materials for a Sustainable Future. This presentation will be of high interest to engineering stakeholders in the materials engineering space, and also to academic and industry researchers in chemical engineering, physics, and biology whose focus is on materials science and development.

Source: ERVA

Leading the webinar will be the visioning event co-chairs, Yael Vodovotz, professor and director, The Ohio State University, and Jennifer Dionne, senior associate vice provost, Stanford University.

Attend this event, scheduled for January 23, 2024, 12:30 PM ET to 1:30 PM ET, to discuss the future engineering research directions within these three areas:

• Process and performance research to enable bio-based replacements for petroleum-based materials that meet product specifications. This includes engineering research that expands the role of microbes and enzymes in the material's lifespan to either sustain it or decompose materials selectively and efficiently at the end of their useful life.
• Predictive models/simulations for all stages in materials development encompassing atomistic-to-continuum structure property-function relationships to accurately represent the new materials' properties, processability and performance.
• Facilities design to enable new feedstocks and low-temperature transformations at scale.