Max Moruzzi is the senior principal research scientist in our Autodesk Research and has authored an article for Techcrunch on how smart materials will change and reshape the world for better through design. This is another remarkable glimpse at the Future of Making Things.

How Smart Materials Will Literally Reshape the World Around Us
tps://techcrunch.com/2016/09/17/how-smart-materials-will-literally-reshape-the-world-around-us/ 

“The IoT may well be The Next Big Thing, but maybe the attention around sensors is misplaced…

What if we didn’t even need embedded sensors to allow things to gather data about their surrounding environment? What if material could be a sensor in and of itself?

Sentient materials might sound like the stuff of sci-fi, but it’s quickly becoming a reality. A new generation of materials is being developed that can sense temperature, pressure, impact and other variables — completely removing the need for sensors.

Not only can these materials capture and relay data to the cloud, they also can reconfigure themselves on-the-fly to react to changing environmental conditions. It’s as if materials are becoming not just smart, but “alive” — and it will change the way things are designed and used in startling ways.”

It’s as if materials are becoming not just smart, but “alive.”

The article also mentions the Hack Rod project

“The Hack Rod project — which brings technology partners together with a team of automotive enthusiasts in Southern California — is out to design the first car in history built with smart materials and engineered using artificial intelligence.”