LEAPS-MPS: Emergent Mechanics of a Living Material

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。大自然提供了目前工程材料不可能实现的行为的绝佳例子。例如，鱼群中的鱼处理信息以保持在一起作为一个有组织的单位，但鱼群能够快速重组并改变其整体形状。该奖项调查了鱼群的结构组织及其变化，以确定自驱动材料的机械可能性。这项工作的应用是为材料工程定义新的规则和设计原则。该奖项支持西雅图大学本科生跨学科研究课题的扩展，并为本科生在学术会议上展示作品创造机会。此外，该奖项还通过资助沉浸式培训计划，为当地高中生提供早期职业发展和支持。鱼群和鸟群中的集体行为展示了个体形成动态有序群体的能力。这些行为是每个组成部分之间简单相互作用的结果。然而，在成对相互作用中也观察到个体之间的简单相互作用，这些相互作用决定了传统材料的结构（例如：晶格间距）和机械性能（例如：键弹簧常数）。该奖项使用平衡材料的动机来描述非平衡鱼群的结构和定义其机械特性，从而比较传统材料科学和生物材料。因此，这将增加对生命系统的基本理解，并激发新材料的设计。该奖项解决了对活性材料的简单和可控实验实现的需求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Nature provides fantastic examples of behaviors that are not currently possible with engineered materials. For example, fish within a school process information to stay together as an organized unit, yet the school is capable of reorganizing quickly and changing its overall shape. This award investigates the structural organization, and changes therein, of a school of fish as a way to identify the mechanical possibilities of self-driven materials. Applications of this work are to define new rules and design principles for materials engineering. This award supports the expansion of interdisciplinary research topics for undergraduate students at Seattle University and generates opportunities for undergraduate students to present work at academic conferences. Furthermore, this award initiates early career development and support for local high school students by funding immersive traineeships.Collective behaviors as seen in schools of fish and flocks of birds demonstrate the ability for individuals to form dynamic ordered groups. These behaviors are a consequence of simple interactions between each constituent. However, simple interactions between individuals are also observed in pair-wise interactions that determine traditional materials structure (ex: crystal lattice spacing) and mechanical properties (ex: bond spring constant). This award uses motivations from equilibrium materials to characterize the structure and define mechanical properties of non-equilibrium schools of fish, allowing a comparison between traditional materials science and living materials. Consequently, this will increase fundamental understandings of living systems and inspire new materials design. This award addresses the need for simple and controllable experimental realizations of active materials. Further, this formulates a perspective to treat an active system as a material with bulk mechanical properties.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.