An artistic rendering of the metamaterial developed by the lab of Prof. Osama Bilal. Credit: Melanie Keogh
The Wave Engineering for eXtreme and Intelligent maTErials (We-Xite) lab, led by engineering assistant professor Osama R. Bilal, has developed a reconfigurable metamaterial that can control sound waves—bending them, dampening them, or focusing them—while encoding real-time tuning with almost infinite possible shapes. Their work is now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Metamaterials are artificial materials that can achieve extraordinary properties not easily found in nature," explains Ph.D. candidate Melanie Keogh '22 (ENG), the first author of the study. In this case, the research team wanted to develop a material that could control sound waves, while being adjustable in both frequency and function, with potential applications ranging from medical imaging to soundproofing.
"Metamaterials are artificial materials that can achieve extraordinary properties not easily found in nature," explains Ph.D. candidate Melanie Keogh '22 (ENG), the first author of the study. In this case, the research team wanted to develop a material that could control sound waves, while being adjustable in both frequency and function, with potential applications ranging from medical imaging to soundproofing.
