The intelligent materials that CIMS researchers are working on now are, (a) shape memory alloys (SMA's) , ferromagnetic SMA's, and their devices, (b) electroactive polymers(EAPs) including conducting polymers, and their devices, (c) piezoelectric composite and its bending mode actuator, (d) electronic composites, (e) metal matrix composites and (f) prosthesis made of composites. In addition to the development of these intelligent materials, CIMS is involved extensively in a hierarchical modeling of these materials ranging from nano- to macro-scale. With this hierarchical modeling, designers can design any devices and systems with optimum microstructure of the intelligent materials while achieving the maximum use performance. For a given performance of a new actuator and sensor system , one can design the best actuator and sensor system based on the CIMS knowledge and know-how on processing, modeling and characterization, as our materials span polymer, metal and ceramic and their composites. CIMS researchers have a broad background covering mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, polymer chemistry, materials science, bioengineering, and biology. The current sponsors are US Government agencies; Darpa, ONR, AFOSR, NSF, and companies, Boeing, Intel, Honeywell, Honda.

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