Name: Soft, Smart, & kinda Alive
Start: 2026-05-20T19:30:00
End: 2026-05-20T21:30:00
Location: Marlborough Arms

What if your jacket could change colour like an octopus? What if artificial intelligence got a working body? Tonight, Morgan Barnes and Suyash Agarwal are taking over the pub to show us how materials are getting smarter. Bring your curiosity.

Shape-Shifting Materials

Dr Morgan Barnes (Lecturer of Soft Manufacturing, UCL)

Biological soft materials are incredibly sophisticated: the heart continuously pumps to sustain life, while octopus skin can morph its texture and color for camouflage. In contrast, most engineered materials remain static and lifeless. This talk explores how to manufacturing “smart” synthetic materials that respond to their environment by morphing their color, stiffness, or shape for life-like functionality and applications in aerospace, energy, and biomedicine.

AI in the Real World: The Robotics Gap

Suyash Agarwal (Machine Learning Engineer)

Artificial intelligence seems everywhere, but operating in the real world actually remains very challenging! I will discuss the current state of robotics, and why it is so difficult.

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