The National Science Foundation Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation awarded a $593,489 Project Grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the Engineering (47.041) federal grant program. The grant will fund research to develop a new surface wave-based technique for the on-the-fly characterization of nonlinear properties in soft materials. The research aims to uncover how surface waves interact with constitutive nonlinearities in soft materials and generate higher-order harmonics that propagate long distances and can be detected. Numerical and experimental studies will correlate surface wave characteristics to rate-dependent nonlinear properties under various preloads. The direct outcome will be experimentally validated physics-based correlation maps between constitutive nonlinearities and dispersion, attenuation, and acoustoelasticity of surface waves. Broader impacts include workshops for local industry and exhibits at annual outreach events for K-12 students and the public.