The high quality scientific program will address different topics organized into 21 symposia arranged in 5 clusters covering the fields of Nanoelectronic materials and devices; Energy materials; Functional materials; Methods; Bio- and soft materials. The latest scientific results will be presented and authors are invited to submit papers in the selected journals that fit the scope of each symposium.

(J): Energy materials: Future electrochemical energy storage materials: from nanoscience to device integration and real environment application

The development of Electrochemical Energy Storage (EES) devices is the key challenge to face the climate change mitigation and the energy crisis for the coming years. Towards a more competitive energy markets, this Symposium will cover the main drawbacks related to the present of the EES technology as well as new findings and perspectives.

In the last decades, the EES technology has been worldwide extensively developed, allowing the successfully penetration on the market of the lithium ion-based batteries, redox flow batteries including metal air cells and supercapacitor technologies. However, those technologies suffer from several technological issues like cost, sustainability, safety, performance, and long stability.

In an attempt to overcome these drawbacks, a large variety of improved nanomaterials with innovative structural and functional properties have been emerging, creating a new generation of energy storage systems. The fundamental understanding of the formation and evolution of interfaces, which leads to degradation and failure modes, is the key point behind the nanomaterial design. Additionally, novel engineering prototypes as well as in-deep evaluation in real applications are mandatory to accomplish the exigent future market requirements.

The symposium will share experience from interdisciplinary sectors; -industry and academic scientist -to bring an overview of the developed nanomaterials for energy storage devices. Selected papers from the symposium will be recommended by the Scientific Committee for the further consideration in the prestigious journal Electrochimica Acta.

Co-organized by Cristina Flox, from the Solid State Chemistry Group at ICMAB (for more information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) 

(E) Nanoelectronic materials and devices: Adaptive materials and devices for brain-inspired electronics

The time is ripe for novel approaches in how we implement hardware for Artificial Intelligence applications. We need highly power-efficient and adaptive hardware platforms to make further advancements in AI possible. The symposium covers development in materials, devices, architectures, and algorithms for brain-inspired computing paradigms.

For the last decade, the developments in dedicated hardware for Machine Learning (ML) has been crucial for recent fundamental advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The central paradigm of the current hardware architectures is to minimise inefficiencies of von-Neumann systems - costly data movement between physically separated memory and compute units. This is typically achieved through aggressive parallelisation and reuse of data. However, current hardware solutions, although optimised explicitly for parallel computing, use digital CMOS technology and conventional von-Neumann architecture. Digital components are inherently unsuitable for the realisation of analogue synapses/weights in artificial neural networks, and the sequential nature of von-Neumann architecture is intrinsically inefficient for vector-matrix multiplications that dominate most ML algorithms. The approaching demise of Moore's Law makes the need for approaches beyond CMOS technologies all the more needed.

This symposium will cover recent developments in smart adaptive materials and devices able to implement specific brain-inspired functionalities in a compact and power-efficient manner. Examples of these include the functionality of synapses, neurons and their assemblies (e.g. plasticity, adaptation, spiking, integration, operation synchronization and auto-organization). The focus will be given to memristive materials systems such as oxides, ferroelectrics, ferroics, organic and inorganic, self-assembly materials, among the others. Apart from the electrical operations, the symposium will investigate the interaction of memristive devices with external non-electric stimuli, such as light, magnetic fields, exploring possibilities of developing compact integrated sensor/processing/memory units. Furthermore, the symposium will address emerging fields of bio-hybrid systems covering materials for brain-computer interfaces.

Finally, the symposium will provide a perfect platform for the exchange of ideas between many different scientific communities, from solid-state physicists, material scientists, chemists, electrical engineers, scientists working in fields of neuromorphic computing, computational neuroscientists, and computer scientists.

Co-organized by Ignasi Fina from the Multifunctional Thin Films and Complex Structures (MULFOX) Group at ICMAB (for more information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

E-MRS Spring Meeting