We need new materials, and we all want Iron Man's JARVIS - these were some of the conclusions drawn at the kick-off event of the Molecular and Materials Design (MMD) Technology hub on 21 November. The seminar at Matrix ONE in the SustainaLab was led by Alfons Hoekstra, the scientific director of the MMD Technology hub. It featured engaging talks by researchers from diverse fields and research institutes, a panel discussion, pitching of MMD projects, bio-based chairs, and not one but two(!) inaugurations.

The importance of a new hub

The ambitions of the MMD hub were highlighted by the dean of the Faculty of Science, Prof. dr. Peter van Tienderen. He showed a video explaining how many of today’s challenges require new materials or molecules with specific properties. At the Faculty of Science, we are in the unique position to both develop and apply technology to speed up the scientific discovery cycle. This can be used to design new molecules and materials to address the Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the EU Green Deal. 

The video also showed the four pillars of the MMD Hub, namely Community & Partnerships, Impulse Funding, Compute, and Data. Van Tienderen emphasized the importance of creating a community: ‘Bringing people together is instrumental to succeed’.  

Succes stories and connecting research

In an inspirational talk, Prof. dr. Gert-Jan Gruter (HIMS and Avantium) showed how he created a new polymer, PEF, to make bio-based plastic. His team has just finished building a large commercial plant for production. He stressed the importance of MMD to design new materials, for example for refilling packaging. Gruter: ‘We need to design new materials to meet these unmet needs.’ 

After that, there was a panel discussion, of course on 100% plant-based, recyclable chairs made by the UvA spin-off company Plantics. The discussion was led by Rob van Hattum, Former Chief Science Officer of NEMO and Science Director for VPRO Public Television, and included: 

• Prof. dr. Annemarie van Wezel, the director of IBED
• Dr. Corentin Coulais from IoP, and PI of a MMD seed funding project 
• Dr. Bernd Ensing from HIMS, AI4Science, and PI of an MMD Seed funding project 

The panel discussion started with a video clip of a VPRO interview with Kristin Persson, director of the Materials Project of Berkeley. The panelists shared her vision on how much automation and AI can help the design of new sustainable materials. The clip also showed a fragment of the movie Iron Man, where Iron Man easily creates a new material with the help of his artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S. Everyone agreed that having a JARVIS would be great.

After the video clip, the researchers briefly introduced their research and then debated the opportunities and challenges of creating new materials. They talked about better understanding the properties of materials, and how automation could speed up the process of discovery. Ensing: ‘There is a shiny vision of what AI can do for MMD’.

Two inaugurations

Then it's time for the inauguration of MMD Compute, a faculty computational cluster and support team that will provide researchers with the necessary Tier 2 computational infrastructure, tools, and expertise to efficiently handle data. After asking ‘Are we ready?’, van Tienderen pressed the red button, and revealed the name of the cluster: Hipster (HIgh Performance Scientific Tier Education & Research). The importance of Hipster is emphasized in a short talk by Dr. Philippe Corboz from IoP on Condensed Matter research.

Lastly, three MMD seed funding PIs pitched their innovative projects: Dr. Sonja Pullen (HIMS), Dr. Gábor Závodszky (IvI), and Dr. Lars van der Heide (SILS).

The MMD Technology hub is officially inaugurated by a demo, where Pullen, Závodszky, and van der Heide turn a handle on a box with a meta-material in it, created at the Faculty of Science. The meta-material slowly revealed the letters “MMD”.

After the event, Hoekstra commented: ‘One of the key objectives of the TechHub is to showcase to the outside world the exceptional Molecular and Material Design technology research being conducted at the Faculty of Science. The kick-off highlighted some truly inspiring examples of what we have to offer. I am very happy about that and have full confidence in the future of our MMD TechHub.’