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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Intelligent solids: Talking structures\, smart n
 ano-robots and the limits of green computers
DTSTART:20230509T120000
DTEND:20230509T130000
DTSTAMP:20260407T051343Z
UID:0c6b5a07200f98744b03d98a18b8834d7a3e97c445af0f39b5f64dd4
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Marc Serra\, Hypersmart Matter Group\, AMOLF\nAbstract: 
 The dynamic response of elastic structures can be very complex\; surprisin
 g us with instabilities\, parametric resonances and chaotic dynamics. This
  complexity is responsible for unpredictable failure mechanisms and numeri
 cal modelling challenges. But could we use the richness of behaviour to ou
 r advantage? Can we design structures that solve problems using solid mech
 anics instead of electronics and software? In this talk\, I will show two 
 examples of our recent work in elastic structures with intelligent respons
 es. First\, I will present a passive structure that recognises spoken comm
 ands\, built by implementing machine-learning models in networks of elasti
 c resonators. Such structure can detect relevant events (e.g. someone sayi
 ng ‘OK Google’) while consuming zero standby power\, opening the door 
 to smart devices (pacemakers\, sensors\, smart speakers) that do not requi
 re batteries to operate. Second\, I will show a mass-spring system that ex
 ecutes an algorithm to find the exit of a maze\, generated automatically f
 rom from a text description of the desired behaviour — written in a ‘m
 echanical programming language’. Such structure could one day form the b
 asis for smart robots with no control electronics. A strong point of intel
 ligent elastic structures is their high energy efficiency. At the microsco
 pic scale\, thermodynamics restricts the computations that we can we perfo
 rm\, given a fixed amount of input energy. To conclude the talk\, I will b
 riefly show our recent simulations on the scaling-down of elastic intellig
 ent structures. Our result suggests that\, while regular electronic comput
 ers consume around four orders of magnitude more power than fundamentally 
 necessary\, the thermodynamically-limited regime may be accessible to smar
 t elastic structures within the capabilities of current fabrication techno
 logy. While mechanical forms of information technology will most likely no
 t replace electronics in general purpose computers\, the ability to functi
 on without a battery\, transducers or toxic materials makes intelligent me
 chanics a promising solution for a remarkable number of problems and use c
 ases — such as implantable sensors\, zero-power IoT devices and other po
 wer or size constrained applications.\n\nBiography: Marc Serra-Garcia is a
  tenure-track group leader at the AMOLF institute on the physics of comple
 x matter in Amsterdam\, the Netherlands — A position he took after his s
 tudies at Caltech and ETH Zurich. His research focuses on developing elast
 ic structures with novel functionalities by combining advanced design algo
 rithms and precision microfabrication with insights from fundamental physi
 cs. His work includes the invention of a nonlinear system that extracts en
 ergy from random vibrations\, the demonstration of wave-controlling materi
 als based on topological insulators\, and\, currently\, the development of
  elastic computing structures — from speech classifiers to entirely-mech
 anical microprocessors\; area of research that has recently been recognise
 d by an ERC Starting grant.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418 https://epf
 l.zoom.us/j/64230566011
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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