LCSR Seminar: David Gracias

Description

Johns Hopkins Professor David Gracias will give a talk titled "Physical Intelligence at the Interface of Biology and Engineering" for the Laboratory for Computational Sensing + Robotics. Gracias has a primary appointment in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and secondary appointments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Abstract:

Apart from embodying intelligence within software programs, in the future, it is envisioned that intelligence will be engineered within physical matter itself such as in smart materials, self-locomotive robots, and stimuli-responsive devices. Our concept of physical intelligence refers to this embodiment of features of intelligent systems (e.g., environmental sensing, autonomous actuation, decision-making, learning, and directional locomotion) within physical objects themselves, without the need for microchips or software programs to control their operation. This talk will describe our efforts to create physical intelligence by leveraging principles from engineering (lithographic patterning, 3D printing) with biology (gels, live cells, and organoids). By way of a few examples, I will highlight recent efforts to integrate complex shape change, programmability, and learning within materials, robots, and integrated devices with the touch and feel of biological matter. These include systems integrating brain organoids, live cell tattoos, and DNA and stimuli-responsive materials. We envision that physical intelligence has the potential to significantly advance modern engineering by enabling shape-adaptive implants, soft robots, programmable materials, biocomputers, and autonomous devices.