text: Emergence is a basic physical phenomenon that leads to a wide range of interesting behaviors, but it is intrinsically difficult to predict or control. Motivated by the recent explosion in nanoparticle synthesis techniques, I will show how emergent behaviors can be precisely engineered using a technique called "digital alchemy." I will discuss how this technique provides new insight into the physics of soft matter, and describe applications of this technique for computational and data-intensive approaches to materials design.