BY ELİF BÜŞRA KARAZİYAN (MBG/II)
With the continuous search for perfection and effectiveness, scientists are now leaning towards using smart materials in manufacturing processes. Smart materials are advantageous due to their ability to respond to stimuli by changing their self-organization and properties. They are mainly employed as sensors but, day by day, new applications in the industry are found. However, due to low quality traditional testing methods, the production process of smart materials is rather slow. In order to overcome this challenge, a powerful computer-based testing tool is required, and this is where artificial intelligence comes to mind.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the leading paths that scientists today take to test their hypothoses due to its ability to learn from a great amount of data. Along with researchers from Bilkent University, UNAM (Kutay Sağdıç and Dr. İsmail Eş) and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Prof. Metin Sitti), Asst. Prof. Fatih İnci’s latest article “Smart Materials: Rational Design in Biosystems via Artificial Intelligence” discusses the possibilities smart materials can open when their design and testing are paired with artificial intelligence. The article focuses primarily on the usage of AI-assisted smart materials in biotechnology, emphasizing how the usage of smart materials will increase in the future. The current challenges and prospects are also discussed in this review.
Dr. İnci’s work appeared and was highlighted as a journal cover in Trends in Biotechnology, one of the area’s leading scientific journals. It can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.01.005