Tech Foresight 2040 - Malleable Matter

What if we could bring a secret in materials to life? One that is shared between aero-engines and invisibility cloaking, developing materials that surpass their original properties—making lightweight materials robust, creating static structures that dynamically respond to their environment and building materials that seamlessly blends into our bodies. Dr Minh-Son Pham will share how we in the next 20 years might teach materials to learn and react to their surrounding environment, sharing the intersection between advance manufacturing and artificial intelligence. By being inspired by nature, we can create materials that can learn, self-optimise and sense their surrounding environment. What might be the future limit of self-learning and adjusting materials?

Wearable electronics have great potential to create better health and wellbeing for the many through the application of new technologies. However, rigid electronics still dominate the wearables sector, making them unsuitable for daily use. Truly wearable devices need to match the elasticity of the skin, show breathability, comfort and be easy to clean. What if we could develop breathable, washable, energy-harnessing and biocompatible electronics that meet these criteria? Dr Felice Torrisi’s research aims to develop a new class of washable, breathable and skin-compatible electronic components based on natural fibres such as cotton and cellulose. These materials are engineered by using techniques from nanomaterials, 2D materials and organic electronics, creating new platforms for intuitive sensing. These novel textiles have applications in broad areas such as healthcare, wellbeing, IoT, lighting and sensing. However, these technologies are also migrating into our bodies. What might be next?