Workshop on Aging and Failure in Biological, Physical and Engineered Systems

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

The workshop: "Aging and Failure in Biological, Physical and Engineered Systems" will take place in May 15-17, 2016 in Cambridge, MA and the participants will discuss the mechanisms by which most complex systems fail. Biological organisms, complex machines, materials, buildings, and social and economic structures loose integrity as they age, and catastrophically fall apart. Failure is investigated by a wide range of highly differentiated disciplines ranging from evolutionary biodemography to solder joint reliability, each of which has established highly differentiated research tracks, specialized language and methodology in order to study one universal phenomenon. The purpose of this meeting is to bring these divergent research tracks together in order to attain a unified view of failure, and point towards a common description. This will be a follow up of the two NSF funded aging workshops that took place for the last two years. Continuing in the tradition of the previous two, we will invite biologists, physicists, medical scientists, and prepare the ground for synergistic discussion. Different from the previous two workshops, we will include reliability engineers and evolutionary biologists. The invited speakers will deliver 20-minute presentations. Since the number of invitees will be few, there will be plenty of time for synergistic interaction: Session chairs will encourage short questions during the presentation and a long discussion that follows every talk, for which we will allocate an extra 20 min. Many students will attend the workshop from different departments and engage in discussions with leading scientists from this interdisciplinary field of research. Through this workshop the participants will work towards an understanding of the fundamental principles of aging and failure by generalizing the conclusions drawn from specific mechanisms taking place in specific systems. By identifying quantifiable, testable questions on how living and nonliving systems age and fail, by establishing commonalities and differences between engineering, physical, social and biological aging and failure, and by bringing the languages of engineering reliability, aging biology, molecular biophysics and statistical mechanics together (i.e. set up the foundations of a translation table between aging and failure in living, material/physical, social and engineered systems) we will lay forth the state of art theoretical understanding of the mechanisms underlying aging and failure.