Computational Colloids: Engineered bacteria as computational agents in the design and manufacture of new materials and structures.

该项目研究土木工程如何与合成生物学的新兴领域相结合。结合这些领域有潜在的变革意义，并可能产生一个新的工程设计领域。想象一下，一个沙柱充满了数十亿的工程细菌细胞。当一个力施加到柱子的顶部时，沙子中的细菌会检测到压力的增加。细菌的反应是合成一种新的生物材料，将颗粒结合在一起，抵抗负荷。由此产生的结构将由一种材料组成，其中沙粒只在通过材料的力需要的地方被胶结。我们提出了一个概念证明，以展示我们如何设计一个制造过程，其中材料本身作为制造商和设计师，对其环境进行建模和响应。这样的技术将远远超越当前的技术水平，并挑战新一代工程设计师从分子到建筑环境的多个尺度进行思考，并预测生物体的土木工程。

This project investigates how Civil Engineering may be integrated with the emerging field of Synthetic Biology. Combining these fields has potentially transformative implications for both and may generate a new field of Engineering Design. Imagine a column of sand saturated with billions of engineered bacteria cells. As a force is applied to the top of the column, bacteria in the sand detect an increase in pressure. The bacteria respond by synthesising a new biological material to bind the grains together and resisting the load. The resulting structure would consist of a material where sand grains are only cemented where the forces through the material require.We propose a proof of concept to show how we might design a manufacturing process where the material itself acts as manufacturer and designer, modelling and responding to its environment. Such a technology would push well beyond the current state of the art and challenge a new generation of engineering designers to think at multiple scales from molecular to the built environment and to anticipate civil engineering with living organisms.