It is clear that humanity needs more and more resources from computing power to steel and concrete in order to meet the growing requirements associated with data centers, infrastructure and other main topics of society. New, inexpensive approaches to the production of the key for the growth of the progressive materials were the focus of a two -day workshop on March 11th and 12th.
One topic during the entire event was the importance of cooperation between and within universities and industries. The goal is to “develop concepts that everyone can use together instead of everyone does something else and then try to clarify it later at great costs,” said Lionel Kimerling, the professor of material sciences and engineering from Thomas Lord on.
The workshop was created by the MITS Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) of the MIT, which an industrial college and the industrial liaison program from MIT have.
The program contained an address of Javier Sanfelix, head of the Advanced Material team for the European Union. Sanfelix gave an overview of the strategy of the EU for the development of advanced materials. He said that “enables the Greens and digital transition to European industry”.
This strategy has already led to several initiatives. This includes material commons or a common digital infrastructure for the design and development of advanced materials as well as an Advanced Materials Academy for the upbringing of new innovators and designers. Sanfelix also described a law on advanced materials for 2026, which aims to achieve a legislative framework that supports the entire innovation cycle.
Sanfelix visited to learn more about how the institute of the future is approaching advanced materials. “We see with a leader in technology worldwide, especially in materials, and there is a lot to learn [your] Industry collaborations and technology transfer with industry, ”he said.
Innovations in steel and concrete
The workshop began with conversations about innovations in which two most frequently produced materials in the world were involved: steel and cement. We will need more of both, but we have to count on the enormous amounts of energy that are necessary to produce them and their effects on the environment due to greenhouse gas emissions during this production.
One way to satisfy our need for more steel is to reuse what we have, said C. Cem Tasan, the Associate Professor of Metallurgy in the Ministry of Materials Science and Ingenieors (DMSE) and director of the material research laboratory.
Most existing approaches to the recycling of scrap steel, however, contain melting the metal. “And whenever you have to do with melted metal, everything rises, from energy consumption to carbon dioxide emissions. Life is more difficult,” said Tasan.
The question he and his team asked is whether they could reuse scrap steel without melting it. Could you consolidate firm scrap and then roll them up with existing devices to create new sheet metal? From the point of view of the material sciences, Tasan said, should not work for several reasons.
But it does. “We have already demonstrated the potential in two papers and two patent applications,” he said. Tasan noticed that the approach focused on high -quality manufacturing scrap. “This is not a scrap place,” he said.
Tasan continued to explain how and why the new process works from the perspective of the material science and then gave examples of how the recycled steel could be used. “My favorite example is the stainless steel worktops in restaurants. Do you really need the mechanical performance of stainless steel there?” Instead, you can use the recycled steel.
Hessam Azarijafari addressed another common, indispensable material: concrete. This year the annual sustainability center (CSHUB) of the 16th anniversary, which began, was a number of industry leaders and politicians to know more about the advantages and environmental effects of concrete.
The work of the hub is now about three main topics: work towards a concrete concrete industry; the development of a sustainable infrastructure with a focus on pavement; And how we can make our cities more resistant to natural hazards through investments in stronger, cooler constructions.
Azarijafari, the deputy director of the CSHUB, provided some examples of research results that have come from the CSHUB. This includes many models to identify different ways to decarbonize the cement and concrete sector. Others include sacrifices that the public considers inert, said Azarijafari. “But we have [created] A state -of -the -art model that can evaluate interactions between plaster and vehicles. “It turns out that the driver's surface properties and the structural performance” can influence the surplus consumption by inducing an additional rolling resistance “.
Azarijafari emphasized how important it is to work closely with political decision -makers and industry. This commitment is the key to sharing the lessons that we have learned so far.
To a resource-efficient microchip industry
Consider the following: In 2020, the number of mobile phones, GPS units and other devices associated with the “cloud” or large data centers exceeded 50 billion. Data center traffic is again around 1,000 times every 10 years.
But all of these calculations take energy. And “everything has to happen at constant energy costs because the gross domestic product does not change this speed,” said Kimerling. The solution is to either produce much more energy or to make information technology much more energy -efficient. Several speakers in the workshop focused on the materials and components behind the latter.
Key to everything you have discussed: Add photonics or use of light to carry information about the established electronics behind today's microchips. “The conclusion is that the integration of photonics in electronics in the same package is the transistor for the 21st century. If we cannot find out how it works, we will not be able to scale forward,” said Kimerling, the director of the with Microphotonics Center.
It has long been the leaders in the integration of photonics in electronics. For example, Kimerling described the integrated roadmap international (IPSR-I), a global network of more than 400 industrial and F&-partners who work together to define and create photonic integrated circuit technology. IPSR-I is led by Microphotonics Center and Photondelta. Kimerling started the organization in 1997.
Last year, IPSR-I published its latest roadmap for the integration of photonics electronics, which “describes a clear way forward and indicates an innovative learning curve for scaling performance and applications for the next 15 years,” said Kimerling.
Another large MIT program that focuses on the future of the microchip industry is Futur-IC, a new global alliance for sustainable microchip production. Futur-I. started, the National Science Foundation is financed.
“Our goal is to build a resource-efficient value chain of the microchip industry,” said Anuradha Murthy Agarwal, main scientist at the MRL and head of Futur-IC. This includes all elements that go into the production of future microchips, including training and techniques of the workforce for reducing potential environmental effects.
Futur-IC also focuses on electronic-photonic integration. “My mantra is to use electronics for calculation, [and] Move to photonics for communication to control this energy crisis, ”said Agarwal.
However, it is not easy to integrate electronic chips into photonic chips. For this purpose, Agarwal described some of the challenges. For example, it is currently difficult to combine the optical fibers with communication with a microchip. This is because the orientation between the two must be almost perfect or the light is distributed. And the associated dimensions are tiny. An optical fiber has a diameter of only millions of meters. As a result, every connection must be actively tested with a laser today to ensure that the light comes through.
Nevertheless, Agarwal describes a new coupler between fiber and chip, which could solve the problem and enable robots to put the chips together passively (no laser required). The work carried out by researchers such as the Drew Wenninger, Agarwal and Kimerling with -doktorand was patented and reported in two papers. A second breakthrough in this area with a printed microreflexion was described by Juejun “JJ” Hu, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.
Futur-IC also leads the educational efforts to the training of future workforce as well as techniques for recognizing and potential destruction of the Perfluroalkyls (PFAS or “Forever Chemicals”), which were published during microchip production. Futur IC education efforts, including virtual reality and play-based learning, were described by Sajan Saini, education director for Futur-IC. Aristide Gumyusege, an assistant professor in DMSE, and Jesus Castro Esteban, a postdoc in the chemistry department, were discussed by Aristide Gumyusege.
Other moderators of the workshop were Antoine Allanore, the professor of material sciences and technology by Heather N. Lechtman; Katrin Daehn, a postdoc in the Allanore laboratory; Xuanhe Zhao, The Uncas (1923) and Helen Whitak Professor in the department for mechanical engineering; Richard Otte, CEO from Promex; and Carl Thompson, professor of Stavros V. Salapatas for Materials Science and Engineering.