AAMS 2026 Theme

A ‘search for the white space’ in metal AM

Inspired by Mike Ashby’s vision of discovering new materials by mapping the ‘white space’ in property charts, AAMS this year brings the community together to push beyond today’s boundaries in metal additive manufacturing.

We will take stock of what we know—drawing on a decade of AAMS captured in the graph network above—while deliberately reaching into the unknown. That ‘white space’ may lie in many directions: 

• Novel microstructure designs and functionalities, 
• Architected materials and metamaterials, 
• Emerging additive technologies involving either fusion-base or solid-state processes,
• Novel in-situ or in-process monitoring technologies for "smart" AM, 
• Multi-scale predictive models, and 
• Ideas we have not yet imagined...

Join us as we explore where metal AM goes next.