Two teams of Penn researchers have been tapped to drive “the future of manufacturing” with innovative, interdisciplinary projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grants come from the agency’s $40 million program to develop new technologies, processes and skills in the fields of “biomanufacturing, cyber-manufacturing and eco-manufacturing.”

One team will focus on “self-morphing building blocks,” inspired by evolutionary biomaterials. The team, featuring Shu Yang, professor in Penn Engineering’s departments of materials science and engineering (MSE) and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), Liang Feng, associate professor in MSE and electrical and systems engineering (ESE), and Masoud Akbarzadeh, assistant professor of architecture in the Weitzman School of Design, will develop artificial structures that are load-bearing, lightwave-guiding, sound insulating, and self-morphing from the nano- to macroscales.

The 5-year, $4.6 million grant will see them collaborate with researchers at Princeton University, Rowan University and Rutgers University Camden. This research will not only push the envelope to achieve additional functions with reduced materials and cost, but also train an inclusive and responsible future Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) workforce.

The other team is also inspired by the manufacturing techniques the natural world has evolved, but is organized under its “cyber-manufacturing” initiative. It comprises Jordan Raney, assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics (MEAM) and Mark Yim, Professor in MEAM and Director of the GRASP Lab. Drs. Raney and Yim will develop a new paradigm for manufacturing in which structures are assembled by swarms of simple, tiny robots.

This project is a smaller, exploratory “seed” grant, which will provide roughly $500,000 toward the exploration of this new paradigm of additive manufacturing.