Smart Materials for Healthy Cities (SMHC)

Populations are on the move. Nature is a key element for ecological, economical, and inner wellbeing of city communities. These two conditions must be addressed for healthy cities to become reality; and the foundational, structural answer to these challenges is smart materials. 

SMHC has two applications; the first: mitigating plastic pollution in waterways. The second a working model that assists population movement into cities, AND allowing nature explorers to feel the benefits of the natural world safely. Our student run company, Falcn, designed fully collapsible smart cookware, a convenient, portable, and lightweight alternative to traditional metal cookware; far more eco-friendly alternative to plasticwares.

Guardians of the Coast is a basic swarm intelligent system gathering micro and macro plastics in waterways using a smart material skirt, that is non-invasive, retractable

Both smart material protects will immediately aid in the health and psychological well being of present communities and those emerging.

Close to 80% of the earth’s human population will live in mega cities. Existing infrastructures will be unable to accommodate emerging populations of different economical problems, waste management, diseases, health, housing, will all be under immense strain that existing structures cannot handle. We need to begin now to build an infrastructure. Initially we have targeted 2 challenges: plastic pollution that has compromised our waters and a physic/spiritual isolation from nature at the same time creating a product that 0 carbon footprint. 

The lack of connection to nature, the refugees on the move all create challenges that our smart material designs can help overcome. We have been working with MIT Sea Grant and MIT LaunchX for smart material public integration. The problem of plastic pollution populations on the move, and our disconnect from nature can all be mitigated with smart materials. Smart materials are more than a new way to build, but a new way to connect with the world. 

We are serving billions of people who’s lives depend on clean water. We are surviving those born and those who will be born into the fourth industrial revolution. A cultural and demographic and technological revolution is overtaking the world. Nature is at a breaking point and this will negatively affect every person on the planet unless we come up with ways to harmonize these issues with a dignified way to live. The solution to this will be smart materials, materials that react to natural stimuli, enabling the creation for long term infrastructure that doesn’t just lie there flat, but reacts and interacts. Smart materials are the core; they will be everyone's lives every day, in every part of the day; a non evasive system that stores energy, heals the human body, clean our waterways, reduce waste, and assist us in survival. 

Many of those we are assisting have no stable housing infrastructure, live with scarce and compromised water systems, and exist in a world without waste management. This ticking time bomb must be addressed and be a central theme to the builders of now and in the future.

Our two smart material innovations for healthy cities:

The Guardians of the Coast, a pair of photovoltaic powered Autonomous Underwater Robots (AUR), implementing infrared sensor mapping technology to locate, target and remove plastic pollution along the near shore. The Guardians of the Coast’s collection mechanism uses a ‘skirt’ interwoven with two layers of Nitinol, a shape memory alloy, to gather and transport the plastic to shoreline designated areas for collection and recycling

Guardians of the Coast utilizes photovoltaic energy to power the lithium batteries in the AURs as the primary source of energy. The implementation of a streamlined design makes it as efficient as possible. Thus requiring minimal power which is essential to improve the efficiency of the overall system. To reduce the drag coefficient of the system, the nitinol in the skirt, when heated, enters the austenite phase, changing its crystal structure to that of a set shape. When cooled, nitinol enters the martensite phase. According to NASA researchers, in this phase nitinol can "undergo significant reversible strain” (up to 10%). The two nitinol layers, that when heated through the use of electricity, will reorient the skirt into it’s extended configuration when collecting and transporting plastic, and a rolled-up configuration prior to the detection of plastic. This implementation will help save marine life and ocean ecosystems by reducing ocean plastics at the coast and preventing its breakdown into microplastics.

Our second innovation: a portable, lightweight cookware is made with nitinol, a shape memory alloy, and titanium. Our patent-pending product can expand to its full height when heated. We do this by incorporating the smart metal nitinol, that reshapes into a set state when heated past a controllable threshold. When the metal is cooled it turns into a malleable form that enables it to be collapsed. The nitinol also has an oxide layer that enables it to be safe to cook with. We’ve taken inspiration from origami: a helix decagon design that supports the infrastructure for our collapsible technology. This allows us to create a portable and lightweight alternative to traditional metal cookware, and a more durable and eco-friendly alternative to plasticwares.

We are using nitinol to directly improve the lives of millions of people. What is unique about our design is it’s non-invasive and highly efficient. Falcn has a direct impact on those in nature and those on the move. For Guardians of the Coast, smart materials are integral to the design; capturing plastics and microplastics at near shore targets. The application for smart materials in the past have been limited to daily appliances, but we aim to bring them to real time projects aiming to keep cities clean and smart, while designing new smarter and bio-integrated cities.

The core technology is the smart material Nitinol. Nitinol has the unique property of a shape memory alloy. When it is heated past a controllable threshold (dependent of the ratio of metals used in the alloys), instead of expanding the distance between molecules, it enters another state of matter called Austine. In the Austine stage, the metal’s atoms reorient themselves into a preprogrammed state, allowing them to result in movement that can be converted into linear or circular motion. When cooled the metal enters the Martinesite state of matter that is highly malleable, and can easily be deformed, while not weakening during transitions as traditional metals would.

Smart materials are interactive, self-repairing, organic solving engineering and environmental problems, combining synthetic and organic materials. In the near future, all healthy cities will be engineered with smart materials. Our two initial projects using the shape memory alloy, Nitinol firstly helps us to connect to nature and secondly offers a compact cooking and disinfecting system for people on move (refugees and those who enjoy nature).

City populations are growing exponentially, and smart materials must exist to sustain them. We are serving the global population, those who are living, and those who are yet to be born. We are cultivating a world, that creates, promotes, and continues to foster growth in the cycle of life. 

For the next year we plan to upgrade Guardians of the Coast and Falcn designs to be better optimized for their deployments and target audience. For the next 5 years, we plan to reach out to cities who are actively trying to improve their infrastructure and technologies to help keep them clean and healthy to incorporate smart materials. 

Infrastructure that is already in place, and the cost of smart materials are some of the biggest hurdles that we must overcome. We must not just seek to improve the lives of those who can afford it, but help communities that lack basic funding. 

To reduce costs for smart materials we must create more affordable methods of development, and convince manufactures to retool their factories. We will look to partner with government and environmental agencies to bring access to those who cannot afford it.

Pristine Academy has linked to MIT and some of the leading professors in the world. The students are engaged in actively developing solutions and outreaching to help spread our message. 

I have been working with smart materials for the past 4 years, and have developed 2 projects to actively protect communities. 

Pristine Academy: We are partnering with MIT Sea Grant to create a symposium event, bringing together like-minded students and professors in a two part event. The first part will be dedicated to student research presentations, and the second will be dedicated to an interactive, harkness method debate. 

Business model is actively engaged with linking with as many communities and individuals government and business as possible. We are non-profit and thus derive our funds from donations and grants. 

We plan to seek financial sustainability through donatinations and grants.

MIT Solve provides a platform to give our voice a more powerful reach.

We are planning to partner with any architectural and engineering firms who are currently involved with smart city construction or renovation.