CENTER FOR COMPLEX PARTICLE SYSTEMS (COMPASS)

非技术描述：胶体是由一种物质的不溶性颗粒组成的混合物，悬浮在另一种物质上。塑造这种基于粒子的物质的能力一直是人类文明发展的核心要素。例如，罗马水泥是一种胶体，两千年后仍在揭示其耐久性的奥秘。诸如增材制造和粒子自组织等现代方法允许制造具有机械、电气、生物和化学性质空前组合的复杂材料。然而，缺乏理论基础来预测胶体作为形成复杂结构的多分散颗粒的动态系统的性质，阻碍了对技术进步至关重要的新材料的发现。因此，需要新的想法和方法来将功能与结构复杂性联系起来。复杂粒子系统中心（COMPASS）汇集了一个由理论、实验和计算研究人员组成的团队，开发必要的科学和技术，以建立基于粒子的物质的系统级方法。该中心将整合各种技术，如图论和机器学习与先进的显微镜。通过对“不完美”系统的关注，COMPASS旨在通过不同的粒子系统点燃3D打印和其他形式的增材制造革命。通过重点开展教育、外联和创业活动，为处境不利的高中生、少数民族和退伍军人提供机会，将扩大COMPASS的变革影响。技术描述：COMPASS通过成为理论、实验和计算研究人员的协作之家，代表了解决分层结构材料知识差距的综合努力，这些研究人员将共同开发基于粒子的物质的系统级方法的科学和技术。这种方法利用了离散数学领域的工具，如图论和网络理论，这些工具在过去主要应用于社会、经济或网络相关学科。COMPASS将使图和网络理论能够预测和控制强相互作用的胶体粒子的复杂行为，这些胶体粒子能够自发地产生静态和动态网络以及具有高复杂性的多尺度分层结构。数学、物理科学和工程学科之间的交叉授粉将基于粒子的物质描述为非理想粒子的复杂系统，这将使与塑造物质相关的持久问题发生范式转变。该中心的活动范围从基础方法的开发到技术应用，并分为四个研究相关的重点。推力#1，胶体作为复杂系统的图理论描述，重点关注具有复杂形状和时空安排的粒子集合的基于图的描述方法，以供后续使用。推力#2，胶体粒子系统的基于图的功能度量，建立了胶体系统结构的图表示与其力学、电学和化学性质之间的关系。预测将被验证使用实验和计算技术与模型粒子系统在宏观，微观和纳米尺度。推力#3，复杂粒子系统的路径，通过利用强相互作用的多分散粒子“群落”中的涌现、自组装和临界现象，开发复杂粒子系统的路径。在推力#4，复杂粒子系统的实现中，之前的进展都汇集在一起。这一推力将在前面任务中获得的累积知识转化为复杂粒子系统的案例研究，这些系统传输的物理量与适合增材制造的各种易于获取的粒子的动态连通性直接相关。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Nontechnical description:A colloid is a mixture consisting of insoluble particles of one substance, suspended throughout another substance. The ability to shape such particle-based matter has been a central element in the development of human civilization. For example, Roman cement is a colloid that is still revealing the mysteries of its durability after two millennia. Modern methods such as additive manufacturing and self-organization of particles allow for the fabrication of complex materials with unprecedented combinations of mechanical, electrical, biological, and chemical properties. The lack of a theoretical foundation to predict the properties of colloids as dynamic system of polydispersed particles forming complex structures, however, hinders discovery of novel materials critical for technological progress. New ideas and approaches are therefore needed to correlate functionality with structural complexity. The Center for Complex Particle Systems (COMPASS) brings together a team of theoretical, experimental, and computational researchers to develop the science and technology necessary to establish a systems-level approach for particle-based matter. The Center will integrate diverse techniques such as graph theory and machine learning with advanced microscopy. Through a focus on ‘imperfect’ systems, COMPASS aims to ignite a revolution in 3D printing and other forms of additive manufacturing with diverse particle systems. The transformative impact of COMPASS will be amplified by thrusts focused on educational, outreach, and entrepreneurship activities that provide opportunities for disadvantaged high school students, minorities and veterans.Technical description:COMPASS represents an integrative effort of addressing the knowledge gap of hierarchical structured materials by becoming a collaborative home for theoretical, experimental, and computational researchers who will together develop the science and technology of a systems-level approach for particle-based matter. This approach takes advantage of tools from the field of discrete mathematics known as graph theory and network theory that has been advanced in the past predominantly for application to social, economic, or networks-related disciplines. COMPASS will enable graph and network theories to predict and control the complex behavior of strongly interacting colloidal particles capable of spontaneously producing static and dynamic networks and multiscale hierarchical structures with high complexity. The cross-pollination among mathematics, physical sciences and engineering disciplines describing particle-based matter as a complex system of non-ideal particles will enable a paradigmatic shift in the enduring problems associated with shaping matter. The activities of the center span from the development of foundational methods to technology-enabling applications and are organized in four research-related thrusts. Thrust #1, Graph Theoretical Description of Colloids as Complex Systems, focuses on the methodology for a graph-based description of ensembles of particles with complex shapes and spatiotemporal arrangements for their subsequent use. Thrust #2, Graph-Based Functionality Metrics for Colloidal Particle Systems, establishes relationships between graph representations of the structure of colloidal systems and their mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. Predictions will be validated using experimental and computational techniques with model particle systems at macro-, micro- and nanoscales. Thrust #3, Pathways to Complex Particle Systems, develops pathways to complex particle systems by taking advantage of emergence, self-assembly, and criticality phenomena in ‘communities’ of strongly interacting polydisperse particles. Advances in previous thrusts come together in Thrust #4, Implementation of Complex Particle Systems. This thrust translates the cumulative knowledge acquired in the preceding tasks to case studies of complex particle systems that transport physical quantities directly related to the dynamic connectivity of diverse readily accessible particles suitable for additive manufacturing.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.