Abstract:

How can we design simple and elegant intelligent materials, that may one day animate and improve themselves?

Today’s researchers are designing materials that physically sense, adapt, and fall together instead of apart. From furniture that builds itself and flat shoes that jump into shape, to islands that grow themselves.

In this talk, Skylar discusses how materials can exhibit behaviours that we typically associate with biological organisms, the challenges we face and how they can help us create a sustainable future.

Skylar Tibbits is a designer and computer scientist whose research focuses on developing self-assembly and programmable materials within the built environment. Tibbits is the founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT, and Associate Professor of Design Research in the Department of Architecture.

Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/C1liR2zeS4s