Perhaps the science textbooks of the future will add a new step to the scientific method: "consult with AI." That's because scientists are using artificial intelligence to help them design brand-new materials that solve human challenges like never before. A team of materials scientists at TU Delft University in the Netherlands have created a new material that is super-compressible, yet durable.. In materials science, researchers are looking for novel geometries in design that are able to be created in real life, while also ensuring those solutions aren't just random. They have to be interesting in some way. "If you change the geometry of the material, it will not do what you want it to do. It breaks or it bends in a different way, it doesn't do what you want," Miguel Bessa, one of the authors of the new paper published in Advanced Materials, told Popular Mechanics.

Yet, Bessa argues that the most important aspect of the work is not the particular material that was created but the ability to reach untapped regions of the design space via machine learning. 'The important thing is that machine learning creates an opportunity to invert the design process by shifting from experimentally-guided investigations to computationally data-driven ones, even if the computer models are missing some information. The essential requisites are that'enough' data about the problem of interest is available, and that the data is sufficiently accurate.' Bessa is a strong proponent of data-driven research in mechanics and materials science. 'Data-driven science will revolutionize the way we reach new discoveries, and I can't wait to see what the future will bring us.'

You may not realize that among more conventional applications of artificial intelligence like apps and search engines, emerging technologies are transforming yet another unexpected area of design: materials. A fascinating new material study released by Delft University is showing how machine learning may upend our assumptions of how materials are capable of behaving. The Delft study, led by assistant professor of materials science and engineering Miguel Bessa, has developed a new meta material that transforms brittle polymer materials into ultra compressible forms--to understand what this means for the future of product design, Bessa says with an innovation like this, "everyday objects such as bicycles, dinner tables and umbrellas could be folded into your pocket." While it's difficult to imagine fitting an entire bicycle in your back pocket, the material has been developed in scales ranging from macro to nano and shows great promise. So how do researchers utilize artificial intelligence to develop new materials?

Researchers at TU Delft have developed a new supercompressible but strong material without conducting any experimental tests at all, using only artificial intelligence (AI). "AI gives you a treasure map, and the scientist needs to find the treasure," says Miguel Bessa, first author of a publication on this subject in Advanced Materials on 14 October. Miguel Bessa, assistant professor in materials science and engineering at TU Delft, got the inspiration for this research project during his time at the California Institute of Technology. At a corner of the Space Structures Lab, he noticed a satellite structure that could open long solar sails from a very small package. He wondered if it would be possible to design a highly compressible yet strong material that could be compressed into a small fraction of its volume. "If this was possible, everyday objects such as bicycles, dinner tables and umbrellas could be folded into your pocket."