US Defense Department Grants $8.5 Million to Nanotechnology Institute for 4D printing

The Daily Northwestern recently reported that the Northwestern International Institute for Nanotechnology received an $8.5 million grant from the US Department of Defense. The Institute will use the grant to develop 4D printing technology.
As quoted in the publication:

The grant, awarded by the DOD’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program, will be dispensed over five years.

Milan Mrksich, one of the project’s five senior participants, said that while most people are familiar with the three dimensions of length, width and depth, there are often misconceptions about the fourth property of a four-dimensional object. Mrksich used Legos as an analogy to describe 4D printing technology.

“If you take Lego blocks, you can basically build any structure you want by controlling which Lego is connected to which Lego and controlling all their dimensions in space,” Mrksich said. “Within an object made up of nanoparticles, we’re controlling the placement — as we use a printer to control the placement of every particle, our fourth dimension lets us choose which nanoparticle with which property would be at each position.”

The printing technology will allow scientists to create materials designed to respond to specific signals or substances, which in turn could have applications in organ replacement and adaptive optics, among other areas, Mrksich said.

Click here to read the full Daily Northwestern article.