UROP Project

biological materials, nanomaterials, microfabrication, 3D Printing

Research Mentor: Dr. Jamel Ali,
Department, College, Affiliation: Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: jali@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 4-5,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Thursday, Sept. 5 from 7 – 8 PM : https://fsu.zoom.us/j/95934659445
Drop-in style
-or-
You are welcome to email me to schedule a time to meet in the MagLab or in in B373F on the Engineering Campus, Building B.

Project Description

There is growing interest in developing tiny wireless swimming devices capable of preforming a variety of tasks, ranging from environmental and industrial to agricultural and biomedical, in low Reynolds number fluids. Over the past two decades these devices have been fabricated though a number of methods, but often involve some form of traditional micromachining, which is costly in terms of time, materials, and fabrication steps.
Alternatively, additive manufacturing holds the potential to produce similarly small structured devices at higher scale and lower cost. However, so far
there are few reports that focus on additive manufacturing for producing small-scale robotic swimmers. In this proposed work, we will utilize additive
manufacturing methods and magnetic wireless control methods to explore the production of swimmers of various geometry for propulsion in viscous
biological media.

Research Tasks: Student(s) will: (1) conduct a brief literature review of additive manufacturing of micromachines, (2) use CAD software (e.g. solidworks) along with a mulit-nozzle 3D printers to produce chiral and achiral swimmers (3) assist with wet-lab experiments including (a) magnetic control experiments (b) high-resolution high-speed optical imaging, and (c) rheological characterization of viscous media. The student is expected to document all laboratory
activities and write up a report which outlines specific printing parameters for effective robotic swimmers fabrication and control, in addition to their required research poster.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Passion for science and engineering along with willingness to learn and ability to balance time to work on the project while taking classes and managing other responsibilities and social activities.