CAREER: Integrative Research and Education on Multiphysical Behaviors of Soft Functional Materials

软功能材料（SFMs）是一种新兴的材料，可以根据环境刺激调整其形状。SFMs展示的令人着迷的形状变化激发了广泛应用的新概念，包括下一代飞机的变形表面和结构，微机电系统的致动器和传感器，组织工程的生物医学支架和支架，药物输送系统，以及用于微创手术的形状改变生物医学设备。然而，由于其复杂的力学行为与热、化学、电、光等过程相结合，使得新概念与工程产品设计实现之间存在很大差距。弥合这一差距需要对这些材料的机械特性有批判性的理解，并开发能够预测重要但非常复杂的行为的建模工具。本研究详细介绍了一系列研究和教育活动，旨在促进对SFMs多物理行为的理解，并开发相应的建模工具，这些工具可用于设计中，以实现这些材料的新应用。教育活动包括开发新课程，开发可视化SFMs结构-功能关系的网站，以及通过科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的发现学习学徒和ATLAS（技术，学习和科学联盟）促进本科生研究和教育。这项学院早期职业发展（Career）研究工作将极大地加速将迷人的SFMs的新应用概念转化为工程设计的过程。此外，研究工作将为学生提供令人兴奋的教育机会，以了解SFMs的结构-功能关系，并掌握建立复杂本构模型的技能。

Soft functional materials (SFMs) are emerging materials that can adapt their shapes in response to environmental stimuli. The fascinating shape changes exhibited by SFMs have inspired novel concepts for a wide array of applications including morphing surfaces and structures for next generation aircrafts, actuators and sensors for micro-electro-mechanical systems, biomedical stents and scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, and shape changing biomedical devices for minimally invasive surgery. However, due to the complex mechanical behaviors coupled with thermal, chemical, electrical, and photo processes, there is a large gap between novel concepts and engineering product design realization. Bridging this gap requires a critical understanding of mechanical characteristics of these materials and the development of modeling tools that can predict the important but very complex behaviors. This research details a set of research and education activities designed to advance the understanding of the multiphysical behavior of SFMs and to develop corresponding modeling tools that can be used in design to realize novel applications of these materials. The education activities include developing new courses, developing a website to visualize structure-function relationship of SFMs, and promoting undergraduate student research and education through the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship and ATLAS (Alliance for Technology, Learning, And Science) at CU-Boulder.This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) researched work will greatly accelerate the process of transforming concepts for novel applications of fascinating SFMs into engineering design. In addition, the research work will provide exciting education opportunities for students to understand structure-function relationship of SFMs and to grasp skills in developing sophisticated constitutive models.