Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Microscale Autonomous Device Engineering (MADE)

规划资助：微型自主设备工程工程研究中心（MADE）

• 批准号: 1840557
• 负责人: Juan De Pablo
• 金额: $ 9.57万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1840557&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers (ERC) competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.Automation has reshaped the US economy, revolutionizing US manufacturing (production lines), management of capital (trading), transportation (self-driving and flying vehicles), and learning (information technologies). In a radical departure from macroscale automated systems, a new ERC will be proposed which aims to push the frontiers of intentional, yet complex, automated systems to the microscale, by developing and implementing active, self-regulating microparticles, membranes and assemblies that can react to external cues in real time. The prospect ERC aims to create systems that operate at length scales that are well below direct human intervention, performing tasks that, until now, have not been possible. This planning grant will be used to hold a variety of planning activities, including several meetings with different stakeholders for the proposed engineering technologies. The planned ERC will operate at the convergence of physics, chemistry and biology to develop new engineering principles for autonomous microscale assemblies that actively propel, self-assemble, reconfigure and respond (via the systems-level integration of structures and microcircuits that can sense, compute and actuate), enabling a second revolution in automation that will benefit humankind. The ERC will focus on 1) Adaptive microscale materials based on self-motile and addressable microparticles, 2) Active membranes consisting of microscale two-dimensional constructs that amplify signals, drive and regulate transport processes or harness mechanical energy to reshape and control interfaces, 3) Programmable polymeric and liquid crystal assemblies, gels and coatings that form, transform and disassemble in response to a range of chemical and physical cues, external fields, forces and biological stimuli.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

工程研究中心（ERC）的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。 自动化重塑了美国经济，彻底改变了美国的制造业（生产线）、资本管理（贸易）、交通运输（自动驾驶和飞行汽车）和学习（信息技术）。在从宏观自动化系统的根本出发，将提出一个新的ERC，其目的是推动有意的，但复杂的，自动化系统的微观尺度的前沿，通过开发和实施积极的，自我调节的微粒，膜和组件，可以在真实的时间外部线索作出反应。ERC的前景旨在创建一个系统，该系统的运行长度远低于直接的人工干预，执行到目前为止还不可能完成的任务。这笔规划补助金将用于举办各种规划活动，包括与不同利益相关者就拟议的工程技术举行几次会议。计划中的ERC将在物理学，化学和生物学的融合中运行，为自主微尺度组件开发新的工程原理，这些组件可以主动推进，自组装，重新配置和响应（通过系统级集成的结构和微电路，可以感知，计算和驱动），从而实现第二次自动化革命，造福人类。ERC将专注于1）基于自运动和可寻址微粒的自适应微尺度材料，2）由放大信号，驱动和调节运输过程或利用机械能重塑和控制界面的微尺度二维结构组成的活性膜，3）可编程聚合物和液晶组件，凝胶和涂层，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。