Speaker: Marc Miskin, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania

Presentation Title: Microscopic Robots that Sense, Think, Act, and Compute

Date and Time: Friday, November 1 at 12:00 PM CT

Location: Tech IEMS C211 and Zoom

Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/CRBSeminar

? NU-authenticated attendees will be automatically admitted. Others, please email amy.nedoss@northwestern.eduto be admitted from the waiting room.

Abstract:

Information processing is at the heart of biology with cells performing incredible feats of sensing, feedback, and computation. Yet for robots of a comparable size (i.e., microrobots) integrated intelligence remains a challenge. Instead of on-board computing, most microrobots rely on external control to tell them what to do and how to evolve, blunting their autonomy, usefulness, and behavioral complexity. This talk is about bringing the power of information processing to robots too small to see by eye. I'll show how to build memory, sensing, computing, actuation, power, and communication systems into a single robot that could fit snugly in a plant cell. Through these circuits, I'll show how microrobots can carry out useful, autonomous behaviors like temperature reporting and gradient climbing without additional instructions or supervision. Finally, I'll discuss some near term applications of smart, inexpensive, programmable microrobots, including peripheral nerve repair and nanomanufacturing.

Bio:

Marc Miskin is an assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a BSc. in Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and PhD. in Physics from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty at U. Penn, he was a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow for Nanoscale Science at Cornell University. Currently, he is interested in the design and fabrication of microscopic robots. His work has won awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Packard fellowship and been featured in several media outlets, including the New York Times, the MIT Tech Review's 35 under 35 list, CNN, the BBC, and NPR. Outside of research, he is actively involved in science education, frequently presenting at science museums across the country.