A new class of bioinspired mechanical metamaterials


The aim of the EU-funded BOHEME project is the technological development of a new class of mechanical metamaterials, drawing inspiration from Nature for their design.
Exploiting knowledge from various disciplines (from biology to mathematics, from ocean engineering to materials science), we start from the inovative assumption that the working principle behind metamaterials is already exploited in nature and that through evolution this has led to optimised designs for wave and vibration control and impact damping.
BOHEME will take a disruptive approach for applications over various wavelength scales, from non-destructive testing to noise reduction to low-frequency vibration control (including seismic waves), to coastal protection or energy harvesting from ocean waves.

Online seminar by Prof. Richard Craster

Online seminar by Prof. Richard Craster

Richard Craster has given a seminar on "Twinning cavities - Making a garage sound identical a cathedral" at the MetaMAT online Weekly Seminars. 

 

 

Joint BOHEME- METAVEH workshop at Imperial College

Joint BOHEME- METAVEH workshop at Imperial College

To stimulate cross-fertilization, a joint workshop has taken place at Imperial College London between BOHEME and the FET Proactive project METAVEH. The two day event took place on 2-3 November 2023, and included scientific presentations and in-depth discussion to facilitate the collaboration between participants during and beyond the two projects.      

Diego Misseroni wins Thomas J. R. Hughes Young Investigator Award

Diego Misseroni wins Thomas J. R. Hughes Young Investigator Award

Congratulations to Diego Misseroni, Associate Professor at the University of Trento, for receiving the 2024 ASME Thomas J. R. Hughes Young Investigator Award, which will be presented at the 2024 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE 2024), to be held on November 17 – 21, 2024, at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR.

Phononic Vibes at EU Industry Days

Phononic Vibes at EU Industry Days

Phononic Vibes participated representing BOHEME in the EU Industry days exhibition, Europe’s flagship annual event focusing on key industrial policy discussions, together with 15 other EU projects.

Metareef on Rainews

Metareef on Rainews

Metareef technology developed in Boheme is highlighted in Rainews (in italian, at minute 9:45)

Metareef on New Scientist magazine

Metareef on New Scientist magazine

WP8 activities to realize metamaterials for water wave attenuation and coastal protection are featured in a news article on New Scientist. Also featured on Popular Science and Interesting Engineering

Prof. Pugno receives the Humboldt Research Award

Prof. Pugno receives the Humboldt Research Award

Project coordinator Nicola Pugno has received the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for his academic curriculum. This scientific prize "honours foreign scientists recognized internationally as leaders, in every discipline, for the results achieved so far”.  

Prof. Misseroni is awarded an ERC consolidator grant

Prof. Misseroni is awarded an ERC consolidator grant

Project participant Diego Misseroni, from University of Trento, has been awarded a 2022 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant, for the project S-FOAM

Presentation on bioinspired metamaterials at

Presentation on bioinspired metamaterials at "Treize minutes" in Marseille by Marco Miniaci

Project participant Marco Miniaci was invited to give a talk at the 16th french congress on acoustics in the "Treize minutes" section in April 2022. The video is now online.

Dr. Bryn Davies has been awarded an individual MSCA fellowship

Dr. Bryn Davies has been awarded an individual MSCA fellowship

Project participant Bryn Davies has been granted a MCSA individual fellowship (AnaTEM: Mathematical Analysis of Multi-dimensional Topological Edge Modes) to work on developing novel mathematical methods for characterising topological waveguides. He will develop analytic methods for modelling multidimensional topological waveguides, aiming to reduce computational expense in metamaterial design and facilitate greater uptake of quasiperiodic metamaterials.

 

New review paper on metamaterials in Nanophotonics

New review paper on metamaterials in Nanophotonics

Project participants Andrea Colombi and Federico Bosia have contributed to a new review paper entitled "Emerging topics in nanophononics and elastic, acoustic, and mechanical metamaterials: an overview" in the Journal Nanophotonics.

Talk by Andrea Colombi at

Talk by Andrea Colombi at "Waves - Dive in!" by focusTerra at ETH Zuerich

On 17th November, 2022, project participant Andrea Colombi of ETH Zuerich will present a talk on "Metamaterials: why and how we control the propagation of waves " for the special exhibition "Waves - Dive in!" by focusTerra.

New review paper published on Matter

New review paper published on Matter

What do spiders, woodpeckers, scorpions, shells and ocean algae have in common? They have all developed structures to efficiently attenuate vibrations and control sound. 

A review by BOHEME participants highlights some common traits and strategies in different biological systems, discusses the relevance to bioinspired materials in the field of phononic crystals and metamaterials, and the potential of exploiting natural designs for technological applications. The work is featured on Poliflash (in italian)

Reduction of vibrations from trains in Boheme and BioMetaRail

Reduction of vibrations from trains in Boheme and BioMetaRail

As an application of new bioinspired metamaterial designs, the Boheme and BioMetaRail teams, led by Phononic Vibes, are developing new solutions for the reductions of low frequency vibrations deriving from train traffic. This is featured in a new article in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine

Plenary Lecture by Wieslaw Ostachowicz

Plenary Lecture by Wieslaw Ostachowicz

July 25, 2022: project participant Prof. Wieslaw Ostachowicz delivers a plenary lecture at the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) conference "QNDE: 49th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation" in San Diego, CA

Workshop on mimicking auditory function at Imperial College

Workshop on mimicking auditory function at Imperial College

June 16-17, 2002: Project participants Bryn Davies and Richard Craster have organised a workshop at Imperial College on "Mimicking Auditory Function: Models,
Metamaterials and Simulations". This is part of activities in Work Package 3 of the Boheme project.

Invited lecture at Xi'an Jiaotong University by Pawel Kudela

Invited lecture at Xi'an Jiaotong University by Pawel Kudela

On the 9th of December 2021, project participant Pawel Kudela gave an invited lecture entitled "Metamaterials and their potential applications in NDT/SHM" at Xi'an Jiaotong University, highlighting the advantages of Bioinspired Metamaterials.   

Materials Today Cover

Materials Today Cover

Work by project participants Nicola Pugno and Federico Bosia is featured on the inside cover of the September issue of Materials Today

Results on new sound-absorbing panels featured in Italian media

Results on new sound-absorbing panels featured in Italian media

Results regarding a new type of sound absorbing panel for aeronautics applications, developed by project participants Federico Bosia and Antonio Gliozzi at Politecnico di Torino, together with a student team from the Alta Scuola Politecnica, has been featured on various national news releases, including Corriere della Sera, Il GiornoANSA, ADNKronos, QDS.

New publication on Advanced Functional Materials

New publication on Advanced Functional Materials

BOHEME researchers working at Politecnico di Torino and University of Trento, together by colleagues at the Universities of Groningen and Wageningen, have developed a theoretical framework in which to describe the behaviour of dissipative viscoelastic metamaterials, and verified it experimentally. The work has been published in Advanced Functional Materials

Boheme at the Festival dell'Innovazione e della Scienza in Settimo Torinese

Boheme at the Festival dell'Innovazione e della Scienza in Settimo Torinese

Project participant Federico Bosia participated in the Festival dell'Innovazione e della Scienza of Settimo Torinese, with a presentation on Materials Science, mentioning bioinspired metamaterials as new advanced materials for the future.  

Opening lecture by Prof. Pugno at the ICTAM2020+1 conference

Opening lecture by Prof. Pugno at the ICTAM2020+1 conference

Project coordinator Nicola Pugno discusses the fascinating topic of bioinspired nanomechanics as part of the Griffith's Theory Centenary player.vimeo.com/video/579738120

"Sharper" night in Trento

Sharper Night 2021 was an exceptional opportunity to present our research to visitors of all ages. We simulated the adhesion of spider silk to surfaces involving children in a game involving weights and scotch tape. Studies of hydrophobic surfaces and molded composites were presented with observations at the microscope. Videos and images supported the introduction of metamaterials, their production and practical purposes.

Boheme on FETFX

Boheme on FETFX

New article on the FETFX website describing the goals of the BOHEME project

Miguel Onorato interviewed on metamaterials for prevention of coastal erosion

Miguel Onorato interviewed on metamaterials for prevention of coastal erosion

Project participant Miguel Onorato has been featured in a web interview on Compagnia di San Paolo's "Breaking Science" program, speaking on the topic of the use of metamaterials for water wave absorption  and coastal protection from erosion. 

Webinar on bioinspired metamaterials by Federico Bosia

Webinar on bioinspired metamaterials by Federico Bosia

19 February 2021. Federico Bosia participated in JORTEC (Jornadas Tecnológicas do Departamento de Ciência dos Materiais da Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia) at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa with a seminar on bioinspired metamaterials

Spider lifting mechanics

Spider lifting mechanics

Project participants Gabriele Greco and Nicola Pugno's latest paper on spider "lifting mechanics" featured on the cover of Journal of the Royal Society Interface and cited in Science and New Scientist 

Special Issue on Nature-Inspired Metamaterials

Special Issue on Nature-Inspired Metamaterials

Project participants Federico Bosia and Marco Miniaci will act as Guest Editors of a Special Issue on "Nature-Inspired Metamaterials" on the journal Applied Sciences.

New publication on Nature Communications

New publication on Nature Communications

BOHEME researchers working at Imperial College London and ETH Zuerich have developed metasurfaces that can convert Rayleigh waves to bulk waves. The work has been published in Nature Communications

Marco Miniaci receives GiovedìScienza Industry 4.0 prize

Marco Miniaci receives GiovedìScienza Industry 4.0 prize

23rd September, 2020. Project participant Marco Miniaci has been awarded the Industry 4.0 prize in the framework of the GiovedìScienza competition, by presenting his research entitled "The cloak of (elastic) invisibility: controlling the waves with metamaterials". This prize is for candidates who, in addition to the scientific merit of their work, have also developed a project proposal of particular interest for the industrial field. News report in local press and radio.

Webinar on Elastic metasurfaces by Prof. Richard Craster

Webinar on Elastic metasurfaces by Prof. Richard Craster

Project participant Richard Craster will be holding a webinar on “Elastic Metasurfaces” on 21st of July, 2020 (2 pm GMT), as part of a series of seminars organized by META-MAT

Marco Miniaci winner of MSCA 2020.HR prize

Marco Miniaci winner of MSCA 2020.HR prize

BOHEME participant Marco Miniaci winner of the MSCA2020.HR award (Impact of MSCA on fellows’ career development for experienced researchers)

Webinar on Bio-inspired metamaterials by Marco Miniaci

Webinar on Bio-inspired metamaterials by Marco Miniaci

Project participant Marco Miniaci will be holding a webinar on “Bio-inspired hierarchical metamaterials” on 16th June 2020 (2 pm GMT), part of a series of seminars organized by META-MAT.

FET OPEN on Bio-inspired Metamaterials coordinated by University of Trento

FET OPEN on Bio-inspired Metamaterials coordinated by University of Trento

Prof. Pugno on the regional TV news Buongiorno Regione Trentino Alto Adige (20:50) and TGR Trentino (08:10) talking about BOHEME - Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials, 31 January 2020.
Download video [In Italian] 

New publication on Nature Communications

New publication on Nature Communications

BOHEME researchers working at Politecnico di Torino, CNRS and EMPA have developed metamaterials that can be tuned by light. The work has been published in Nature Communications

 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 863179.
The sole responsibility for the content of this webpage lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.
Neither the REA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.