 As one of America's top research universities, UW-Milwaukee is at the forefront of technological advances to make materials smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable. Tomorrow's infrastructure will benefit from smart concrete, that is flexible, water repellent, longer lasting, and more environmentally friendly. One interdisciplinary team is creating concrete embedded with sensors to act as the canary in the coal mine, signaling the presence of visible, threatening problems in roads and bridges. Beyond concrete, our researchers are creating energy saving, self-healing, and self-lubricating metal matrix composites. These composites combine standard metal alloys with completely different classes of material. This gives them smart qualities, which have potential to significantly reduce friction in internal combustion engines. This means saving gas while reducing emissions. We are creating automated and embedded damage detection systems. This could be used on aircraft to reduce maintenance costs by operating in real time while in use. Our researchers are also working with industry to reduce carbon buildup and associated costs encountered during ethylene manufacturing. Ethylene is the most widely produced organic compound in the world. The U.S. Department of Energy provided funding to test a recently patented alloys ability to resist carbon buildup or coking. It could be used to save manufacturers millions in lost productivity due to shutdowns for cleanup. In addition to these financial benefits, the process is more efficient, which translates into reduced energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. UW-Milwaukee engineers are changing the material world from the roads we drive on to the cars we drive and so much more.