UT and the University of Münster team up for “intelligent matter”

The University of Twente and the University of Münster (WWU) have announced a new partnership. Made possible by a funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the two institutions will take part in the new collaborative research center dubbed “Intelligent matter: from responsive to adaptive nanosystems.” In the collaboration, UT and WWU will team up on projects in the field of intelligent nano building blocks and so-called “brain-inspired computing.”

The research aims to find if it’s possible to create nano building blocks that can acquire information and reuse it again, even while the circumstances change. The possibility of creating intelligent materials such as this opens the door to applications such as artificial skin, soft robotics with adaptive tactility and computers inspired by the way the brain works, using a minimum of energy. Recently, UT’s Center for Brain-inspired Nanosystems (Brains) showed an example of this in Nature Nanotechnology as research sought to find how intelligent behavior develops when multiple nanoblocks collaborate and if it is then possible to control.