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1. Tuning Microbial Activity via Programmatic Alteration of Cell/Substrate Interfaces

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202004655  

   Gulyuk, Alexey_V; LaJeunesse, Dennis_R; Collazo, Ramon; Ivanisevic, Albena (May 2021, Advanced Materials)

   Abstract A wide portfolio of advanced programmable materials and structures has been developed for biological applications in the last two decades. Particularly, due to their unique properties, semiconducting materials have been utilized in areas of biocomputing, implantable electronics, and healthcare. As a new concept of such programmable material design, biointerfaces based on inorganic semiconducting materials as substrates introduce unconventional paths for bioinformatics and biosensing. In particular, understanding how the properties of a substrate can alter microbial biofilm behavior enables researchers to better characterize and thus create programmable biointerfaces with necessary characteristics on demand. Herein, the current status of advanced microorganism–inorganic biointerfaces is summarized along with types of responses that can be observed in such hybrid systems. This work identifies promising inorganic material types along with target microorganisms that will be critical for future research on programmable biointerfacial structures. 

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2. An Asynchronous FPGA THx2 Programmable Cell for Mitigating Side-Channel Attacks

   https://doi.org/10.1109/MWSCAS48704.2020.9184563  

   Emmert, John M.; Perumalla, Anvesh; Concha, Luis (August 2020, 2020 IEEE 63rd International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS))

   null (Ed.)

   One approach to mitigate side-channel attacks (SCAs) is to use clockless, asynchronous digital logic. To simplify this process, we propose a unique asynchronous FPGA based on a new THx2 programmable threshold cell. At a minimum, FPGAs require a programmable logic cell that can implement a complete set of logic so that it can be connected through the programmable interconnect network to form any digital system. To meet that criteria, we take advantage of CMOS transistors to implement a programmable THx2 threshold cell capable of performing both TH12 and TH22 asynchronous operations. Our complete sixteen transistor FPGA cell includes eight transistors to implement the base THx2 threshold operation, three transistors to switch between the TH12 and TH22 modes, and five memory cell transistors for mode storage. Our unique minimal transistor, programmable THx2 implementation enables formation of a complete set of asynchronous threshold gates and a complete set of standard combinational logic functions. The symmetric nature of the FPGA cell, in regard to the number of transistors (eight NMOS and eight PMOS), makes it ideal for a four row by four column transistor grid with a nearly square, easily array-able layout. It should be noted our THx2 cell is highly compact and suitable for implementing a clockless, asynchronous FPGA. 

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3. Algorithmic encoding of adaptive responses in temperature-sensing multimaterial architectures

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk0620  

   Li, Weichen; Wang, Yue; Chen, Tian; Zhang, Xiaojia Shelly (November 2023, Science Advances)

   We envision programmable matters that can alter their physical properties in desirable manners based on user input or autonomous sensing. This vision motivates the pursuit of mechanical metamaterials that interact with the environment in a programmable fashion. However, this has not been systematically achieved for soft metamaterials because of the highly nonlinear deformation and underdevelopment of rational design strategies. Here, we use computational morphogenesis and multimaterial polymer 3D printing to systematically create soft metamaterials with arbitrarily programmable temperature-switchable nonlinear mechanical responses under large deformations. This is made possible by harnessing the distinct glass transition temperatures of different polymers, which, when optimally synthesized, produce local and giant stiffness changes in a controllable manner. Featuring complex geometries, the generated structures and metamaterials exhibit fundamentally different yet programmable nonlinear force-displacement relations and deformation patterns as temperature varies. The rational design and fabrication establish an objective-oriented synthesis of metamaterials with freely tunable thermally adaptive behaviors. This imbues structures and materials with environment-aware intelligence. 

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4. Computing by Programmable Particles.

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11072-7  

   Daymude, Joshua J; Hinnenthal, Kristian; Richa, Andrea W; Scheideler, Christian (January 2019, Springer)

   This is a chapter in Book "Distributed Computing by Mobile Entities: Current Research in Moving and Computing", Springer Nature. The vision for programmable matter is to realize a physical substance that is scalable, versatile, instantly reconfigurable, safe to handle, and robust to failures. Programmable matter could be deployed in a variety of domain spaces to address a wide gamut of problems, including applications in construction, environmental science, synthetic biology, and space exploration. However, there are considerable engineering and computational challenges that must be overcome before such a system could be implemented. Towards developing efficient algorithms for novel programmable matter behaviors, the amoebot model for self-organizing particle systems and its variant, hybrid programmable matter, provide formal computational frameworks that facilitate rigorous algorithmic research. In this chapter, we discuss distributed algorithms under these models for shape formation, shape recognition, object coating, compression, shortcut bridging, and separation in addition to some underlying algorithmic primitives. 

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5. Non-volatile materials for programmable photonics

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0165309  

   Fang, Zhuoran; Chen, Rui; Tossoun, Bassem; Cheung, Stanley; Liang, Di; Majumdar, Arka (October 2023, APL Materials)

   Programmable photonics play a crucial role in many emerging applications, from optical accelerators for machine learning to quantum information technologies. Conventionally, photonic systems are tuned by mechanisms such as the thermo-optic effect, free carrier dispersion, the electro-optic effect, or micro-mechanical movement. Although these physical effects allow either fast (>100 GHz) or large contrast (>60 dB) switching, their high static power consumption is not optimal for programmability, which requires only infrequent switching and has a long static time. Non-volatile materials, such as phase-change materials, ferroelectrics, vanadium dioxide, and memristive metal oxide materials, can offer an ideal solution thanks to their reversible switching and non-volatile behavior, enabling a truly “set-and-forget” programmable unit with no static power consumption. In recent years, we have indeed witnessed the fast adoption of non-volatile materials in programmable photonic systems, including photonic integrated circuits and free-space meta-optics. Here, we review the recent progress in the field of programmable photonics, based on non-volatile materials. We first discuss the material’s properties, operating mechanisms, and then their potential applications in programmable photonics. Finally, we provide an outlook for future research directions. The review serves as a reference for choosing the ideal material system to realize non-volatile operation for various photonic applications. 

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