The lectures will be organized into four main sessions (i.e., experiments, theory, numerics, applications).

The first session “Experiments” will introduce the concept of active soft materials, providing insight on the main physical properties of these materials, manufacturing techniques, applications, and challenges. Then, two lectures will be focused on two representative material types, i.e., active hydrogels and shape memory polymers.

The second session “Theory” will give an overview of the thermodynamics of active deformation in soft materials. Specialized lectures will be dedicated to the state-of-the-art on the modelling approaches for active hydrogels, photopolymers, and shape memory polymers. Insights on important mechanisms as wrinkling and failure will be treated.

The third session “Numerics” will discuss the computational tools available today to describe the mechanical behavior of active soft materials, with particular focus on recent topology optimization approaches and artificially intelligence techniques. Fracture mechanisms and related computational techniques will be presented.

The fourth and last session “Applications” will introduce the students to recent and innovative application fields of active soft materials. In particular, lectures will be first dedicated to 4D printing and 4D biofabrication approaches. Then, applications in the biomedical, soft robotics, aerospace, and textile fields will be presented.

Sponsor sessions will allow to link the academic world to the industrial one.

A hands-on section is scheduled from day one to day four. During the first day, the organizers will assign a specific topic to each group into which the participants will be divided. During the practical session, attendees will be able to participate in or carry out projects and physical activities related to the topics explained during the lectures.

At the end of the school (Day 5), the teams will make a pitch and the best one will be awarded. An award session will be dedicated to the selection of the best poster as well.