NSF Award
2403712
This grant provides partial travel and registration support for the attendance of 25 early-career researchers to the short course 'Polymer Physics of Additive Manufacturing' to be held at the 2024 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2-3 March 2024. Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are transforming the way products are designed and used at the hobby, prototyping, and industrial scales. These techniques are enabling advances in reducing the amount of material required to manufacture products (‘material economy’) as well as in light-weighting efforts (reducing the carbon footprint of these materials). The ability to personalize products has led to advances in healthcare, while rapid prototyping decreases product time-to-market and allows field-based repairs of critical parts. Continued interdisciplinary innovation in the development, control, and application of polymer-based AM methods is important to ensure the development of new high-precision, high-throughput AM approaches and enable their application to industries from healthcare to robotics and aerospace. The short course will teach attendees the core polymer physics-based principles underlying several key established and emerging AM methods via lectures including interactive elements. Additionally, the short course will feature industry representatives and a panel who will illustrate how the core underlying physics and chemistry principles of AM enable applications with real-world impact. Recruitment and advertising efforts will focus on building a multidisciplinary set of participants, with a special focus on early-career participants from underrepresented backgrounds.<br/><br/>The 'Polymer Physics of Additive Manufacturing' short course will be delivered through the APS Division of Polymer Physics (DPOLY) and will bring together experts in the polymer physics, computational modeling, optics, chemistry, and advanced characterization of additive manufacturing processes. Experts in the interplay between additive manufacturing and biology (both biomaterials and cells) and in modeling the unique mechanics of printed structures will also participate. These experts will lead teaching lectures on the principles underpinning additive manufacturing techniques including thermoplastic extrusion, direct ink writing (DIW) and embedded DIW, bioprinting, and both layer-by-layer and volumetric vat photopolymerization. Specific topics will focus on the role of both experiment and computation and will discuss the roles of heat transfer, polymer rheology and flow, polymer diffusion, and crystallization and entanglements; the relationship between 'ink' microstructure and printability; the roles of optics, photopolymerization, and reaction kinetics; and the unique mechanics that can be achieved in 3D printed structures. The focus of this project on supporting registration and travel for early career attendees is expected to lead to a diverse early-career audience.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
