The seminar entitled Breaking Mechanical Property Trade-Offs in Metals: From Fundamental Mechanism Discovery to Spatial Intelligence-Driven Research will be given by Prof. Jean-Charles Stinville from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, USA on July 23, 2026, at 10:00 am in the IPM lecture hall. The seminar will be held in English.
Mechanical property trade-offs, such as strength–ductility and fatigue resistance–strength, are often regarded as intrinsic limits in structural metals. However, these trade-offs emerge from the spatial organization and characteristics of plasticity at the microstructural scale rather than from unavoidable material constraints.
This seminar presents transformative approaches to overcoming these trade-offs, spanning from the traditional paradigm of physics-based experimental discovery to emerging strategies enabled by large-scale database generation and machine-learning–driven research.
Key concepts to be discussed:
- Dynamic Plastic Deformation Delocalization: A mechanism demonstrating that controlled competition between deformation mechanisms can inhibit plastic localization and break the classical fatigue strength–performance trade-off.
- Material Spatial Intelligence: A machine-learning framework developed to systematically identify microstructural states capable of breaking mechanical property trade-offs.
- Data-Driven Navigation: Leveraging automated database generation and high-resolution microstructure–plasticity latent mapping to encode and navigate the relationship between microstructure, deformation behavior, and mechanical properties.
This approach enables the data-driven identification of microstructural configurations that overcome classical performance limits while providing a fundamental understanding of microstructural effects and deformation processes.
Seminar Information:
Speaker: Prof. Jean-Charles Stinville (University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, USA).
Date and Time: Thursday, July 23, 2026, at 10:00 am (coffee/tea available from 9:30 am).
Venue: Lecture Hall, Institute of Physics of Materials CAS, Žižkova 22, Brno.
Language: English.
The institute-wide seminar is open to all researchers and students interested in advanced material performance, microstructure analysis, and the application of spatial intelligence in materials science.


