Project Grant 2602940

The National Science Foundation Office of Integrative Activities awarded Prairie View A&M University $628,653 on September 1, 2026, under the Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083) to establish a computational framework translating nature's structural designs into engineering practice through artificial intelligence and machine learning for biomimetic design.

The research extracts quantitative, machine-executable design rules linking biological morphology to performance, encodes these rules into AI-driven generative design workflows, and validates them through mechanical testing and rapid prototyping. The work addresses a gap in existing biomimetic approaches, which remain largely ad-hoc and grounded in qualitative analogies rather than computable design rules. Expected outcomes support next-generation lightweight, multifunctional, and sustainable structures for various engineering applications.

The three integrated research objectives formulate a physics-informed machine learning surrogate-accelerated topology optimization system to generate datasets of geometry-performance pairs on structural hierarchy, cellular, and graded biomimetic morphologies under systematic sweeps of boundary conditions and functionality constraints; curate a nature-encoded morphology and performance dataset; and integrate extracted design rules into generative design workflows validated through experimental testing.

Beyond research deliverables, the project builds sustainable research capacity and student participation in AI-driven engineering design through curriculum integration, undergraduate and graduate research training, virtual reality learning modules, and K-12 outreach to neighboring school districts.

Performance occurs at Prairie View, Texas, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2029.