Professor Xiaogang Guo answers our questions about their work and Cambridge University Press’ Open Access journal Programmable Materials.

What first attracted you to the field of programmable materials?

Programmable materials are increasingly important in various fields and are attracting more and more researchers from material science, computer science, mechanical engineering, and electronics. Searching with the keyword ‘Programmable Materials’ in Google Scholar, more than 780,000 records will be found, and 24,500 records are from 2020. Compared with traditional materials or structures, programable materials offer the capability to change their shape for the desired functions upon the external stimulus and are attracting more and more attention.

What are you currently working on that you’d like to tell us about?

My research currently focuses on the mechanical metamaterial with tunable thermal expansion performances, the programmable materials for desired complex configurations, and flexible and stretchable electronics based on piezoresistive effect.

What do you think the journal Programmable Materials will bring to the field?

Our journal will not only serve as an academic base for the recent advances in programmable materials, but it will also redefine the connotation of programmable materials and make programmable material a more independent research field.

What are some of the challenges facing the field today?

The current challenges of programmable materials include: the inversely designing or optimizing methods for achieving the desired configuration and function, the actuation strategy at micro-scale, and the fast-speed and facilitated fabrication method of programmable materials.

In which areas of the programmable materials field do you expect to see growth in the next five to ten years?

The first is the inversely designing method for achieving the desired complex configurations, and the second is the applications of programmable materials in the fields of space, micro-electronics, and morphing aircraft.

Why should authors publish in Programmable Materials?

Programmable Materials is the first special journal dedicated to publishing articles describing the latest developments. And it will be a first choice for researchers to share their advances in programmable materials and search for a solution or a corporation.