Mechanics has always embraced multidisciplinary, and this is all the more so today with applications in solid mechanics ranging from applying mechanics in new fields such as mechanobiology, chemo-mechanics of energy storage materials, active matter and robotics to developing new mechanics in the age of data science. While each of these fields on its own is multidisciplinary, via this symposium, we wish to explore synergies between these emerging fields in mechanics. The aim is to chart out new avenues for (solid) mechanics for the coming decades. Our focus will be on three themes each spanning approximately 1 day of a 3-day symposium. The three themes are:

(i) Mechanobiology and chemo-mechanics

(ii) Active matter, micromachines and micromotors

(iii) Theoretical, Computational and Experimental Mechanics in the age of data science

Theme 1: Mechanobiology and chemo-mechanics: The mechanics of living cells and tissues involves strong two-way coupling between biochemistry and mechanics, e.g., the differentiation of stem cells is known to be governed by the stiffness of the extracellular matrix wit. Similarly, coupling between electro-chemistry and mechanics governs the failure of Li-ion batteries. There are strong analogies between the coupled chemo-mechanical principles used to understand these problems and, in this theme, we shall not only aim to explore the commonalities in the theoretical frameworks but also the associated experimental techniques.

Theme 2: Active matter, micromachines and micromotors: Living systems such as those in theme 1 are open systems, with “active matter physics” a field that aims to develop thermodynamic frameworks for such systems. While the ideas of active matter clearly overlap with theme 1, there are also deep connections with the more “engineering” concepts being developed in the context of soft robotics and micro and molecular machines.

Theme 3: Theoretical, Computational and Experimental Mechanics in the age of data science: Ideas in data science are now gaining prominence in mechanics from solving PDEs to developing more accurate constitutive models for complex materials. The topics of themes 1 and 2 fall into the broad category of “complex materials” and here we shall explore the role of data science in this general field. The emphasis will be on (i) the role of physics in constraining data-based computational techniques and (ii) experimental methods that can make the “data poor” field of materials “data rich”.