Biologically Mediated Fabrication and Biomolecular Sensors and Actuators

1
Biologically Mediated Fabrication and
Biomolecular Sensors and Actuators
Objectives

• Identify ways to exploit naturally occurring and
  synthetic biology/bio-molecules in engineered
  sensors, bio-electronics and actuators
• Explore biologically-mediated fabrication methods
  that complement existing MEMS and semiconductor
  practices.
• Make biomaterials more accessible to the general
  engineering community though education/outreach

Broader Impacts
Technological Challenges

• Preserving biological activity in engineered
  systems
• Reproducibility and scale-up quality control of
  final unit or accommodating/mediating the lack
  thereof
• Processes (methodologies, equipment) to promote
  manage self-assembly and to characterize
  properties.
• Modeling of bio-molecules with engineered
  electro-/chemical-/ mechanical-interactions.
• Training of workforce in this area.
• Address environmental and ethical concerns and
  ensure safe use of technology.

• Lower cost thru standardization
• Green engineering/manufacturing
• Novel sensing and actuation
• New energy sources (e.g., bio-fuel cells)
• Synthetic organs
• Training of graduate students in
  cross-disciplinary field.
• Self-healing mechanisms

2
Grand Challenge

• Biologically Mediated Fabrication and
  Biomolecular Sensors and Actuators
• Summary Biologically mediated fabrication and
  biomolecular sensors and actuators The grand
  challenge is to identify and overcome the
  fundamental challenges posed by sensors,
  actuators and energy conversion devices that are
  based on the unique characteristics of
  biomolecules (e.g., DNA, proteins, ion channels)
  and posed by biologically-mediated sensor and
  actuator fabrication processes (e.g.,
  self-assembly, templating, and material
  deposition and etching methods employing
  micro-organisms and biomolecules). The research
  challenges include retaining biological activity
  of biomolecules in engineered transducers,
  modeling and understanding interactions between
  biomolecules and electronic, photonic, and
  mechanical transducers, and controlling and
  characterizing biologically-mediated assembly.

3
Organization, Interaction and Processing in
Bio-Networks
Objectives

• Enable distributed sensing arrays that surpass
  predictions of existing signal detection theory.
• Modeling of two contrasting data convergence
  paradigms collective response to a few inputs
  (e.g., schooling) vs few outputs to many inputs
  (e.g., spatiotemporal array data compression)
• Understanding nonverbal communication /
  interaction networks

Broader Impacts
Technological Challenges

• Strategies for extracting information by
  adaptively sampling multi-scale spatiotemporal
  patterns
• Bridge the divide between data and decisions
  taking complex data and rapidly arriving at
  simple solutions
• Balancing actuation and sensing when there is an
  inhibitory relationship between the two (example
  moving to sense a predator vs. hiding by not
  moving)
• Formalize the multiple, possibly competing and/or
  evolving objectives of bio-networks and translate
  to engineering.

• Development of autonomous robotic systems for
  infrastructure inspection and assessment
• Framework for multi-objective decision-making in
  dynamic environments
• Faster more robust sensor arrays
• Engender cross-disciplinary training programs
  linking biological dynamics to quantitative
  tools.

4
Grand Challenge

• Organization, Interaction and Processing in
  Bio-Networks
• Summary The grand challenge is to comprehend
  biological strategies for extracting,
  compressing, and transmitting spatiotemporal
  information under competing or evolving
  objectives. Translate understanding to enable
  bio-inspired robotic technologies, such as
  autonomous navigation, that can be used to
  address international needs like infrastructure
  inspection.

5
Engineering Multifunctional Material Systems
through Multi-Scale Integration and
Engineering-Motivated Biological Studies
Objectives

• Enhance our fundamental understanding of biology
  and physiology while driven by an engineering
  view and motivation
• Multi-length scale bottom-up assembly of
  molecules to form functional devices that govern
  the behavior of the biological system
• Systems integration to achieve true
  multifunctional material systems that self-heal,
  sense, actuate, power, diagnose, etc.

Broader Impacts
Technological Challenges

• Actuation energy harvesting adequate
  force/power densities, operating environments,
  temperature, size effects
• Sensing spatial and distributed sensing, direct
  detection, high-performance
• Data real-time management/pre-processing
• Scalability materials processing and fabrication
  techniques to bridge the nano- and tangible
  length scales

• Academic industry development of intellectual
  property and rapid adoption of new technologies
  and devices
• Society findings are building blocks that
  further advancements in civil, mechanical,
  aeronautical, and transportation engineering
• Education new BSBA-driven curriculum, summer
  programs, short courses, and undergrad/grad/post-d
  oc opportunities

6
Grand Challenge

• Engineering Multifunctional Material Systems
  through Multi-Scale Integration and
  Engineering-Motivated Biological Studies
• Summary The grand challenge is to develop
  next-generation bio-inspired material system
  architectures that fully employ comprehensive
  system integration strategies ranging from the
  nano- to the macroscopic length scales. The
  technical challenge is to enhance our fundamental
  understanding of biology, driven by an
  engineering perspective, to fully comprehend how
  individual molecules or cells interact and
  assemble to create functional components that
  autonomously and collectively guide the behavior
  of an entire creature. The end result is the
  design and fabrication of high-performance
  multifunctional materials encoded with sensing,
  actuation, morphing, decision making, energy
  harvesting, self-diagnostic, and self-healing
  capabilities.

7
Sensory Capabilities of Specialized Species for
Earthquake Monitoring and Detection
Objectives

• Develop bio-inspired sensors that mimic the
  optimized sensory systems of the identified
  specialized species
• Establish the final links between animal
  behavior, earthquake occurrence, and recorded
  seismic ground motion data

Broader Impacts
Technological Challenges

• Identify pre-earthquake signals
• Identify specialized species that have sensory
  capabilities to detect pre-earthquake signals
• Characterize sensory systems that have been
  optimized through evolutionover millions of
  yearsto detect signals that are associated with
  incipient earthquakes
• Investigate species which are known to have
  extreme sensing capabilities but are not linked
  to earthquake detection

• Potentially life saving warning systems
• Completely new sensing systems
• New ways of processing distributed sensory
  information
• US-Taiwan NSF-NSC collaboration in BSBA for
  enabling earthquake science engineering
• New engineering and science curriculum in the
  emerging field of BSBA with interdisciplinary
  exposure to bio-sciences and engineering
• Next-generation of scientists/engineers in BSBA
  field

8
Grand Challenge

• Sensory Capabilities of Specialized Species for
  Earthquake Monitoring and Detection
• Summary The grand challenge is to develop
  bio-inspired sensors that mimic the optimized
  sensory systems of species identified as having
  extreme sensory specializations, and to
  investigate the sensory perception abilities in
  species for which there are believed to be links
  between animal behavior, earthquake occurrence,
  and recorded seismic ground motion data. The
  technological challenges that need to be
  addressed are (a) identification of
  pre-earthquake signals, (b) identification of
  specialized species that have sensory
  capabilities to detect pre-earthquake signals,
  (c) characterization of sensory systems that have
  been optimized through evolution--over millions
  of yearsto detect signals that are associated
  with incipient earthquakes, and (d) investigation
  of species which are known to have extreme
  sensing capabilities but are not linked to
  earthquake detection. The impact would be new
  life saving warning systems, novel sensing
  systems, and new ways of processing distributed
  sensory information.

9
Bio-Inspired Smart Sensor Networksfor Adaptive
Emergency Response
Objectives

• Advanced bio-inspired sensing and communications
  framework for earthquake disaster response
• capable of self-organization and adaptation for
  sensing, filtering, and transmission of
  mission-critical data
• using networkable smart devices for distributed,
  real-time support of both emergency responders
  and victims

Technological Challenges
Broader Impacts

• Apply the principles of (i) entomology within
  the context of a social network, and (ii)
  neurobiological principles such as sparse coding
  and layered response processing, to cope with
  problems that frequently exist in the chaotic and
  inhospitable environment of disaster relief
  operations, such as reliability, consistency,
  trustworthiness, information overload, using
  self-organization, and efficient collaboration
  protocols.
• Develop heuristics and algorithms to
• determine the stability of the physical
  infrastructure
• self-organize and coordinate available sensor
  resources
• determine the condition of victims and
  infrastructure
• determine the spatial location of victims and
  hazards

• New paradigm for coordination and management of
  emergency responders to locate and rescue
  earthquake disaster victims
• Multidisciplinary environment for student
  education and training
• Directly applicable to other natural and man-made
  disasters
• Broad opportunities for international
  collaboration
• Significant improvement in first responders
  ability to handle disasters and save the lives of
  individuals.

10
Grand Challenge

• Bio-inspired Smart Sensor Networksfor Adaptive
  Emergency Response
• Summary The grand challenge is to apply the
  principles of (a) entomology within the
  context of a social network and (b)
  neurobiological principles such as sparse coding
  and layered response processing to cope with
  problems that frequently exist in the chaotic and
  inhospitable environment of disaster relief
  operations, such as reliability, consistency,
  trustworthiness, redundancy, information
  overload, self-organization, and efficiency of
  collaboration protocols. Indeed, the
  effectiveness of these biological systems in
  adapting to evolving and complex stimuli,
  developed through evolution, has been a fertile
  source of inspiration for the development of many
  engineering and scientific principles, providing
  powerful design and analysis tools. These
  principles will be applied to ensure the health
  and safety of survivors following a major
  disaster, allowing first responders to rapidly
  assess the stability of physical structures,
  locate and rescue trapped or non-ambulatory
  victims, identify and provide emergency medical
  treatment to the injured, and safely evacuate
  ambulatory survivors. This research will
  fundamentally transform the sensing and
  communications infrastructure for emergency
  response management during major earthquakes, as
  well as other natural and man-made disasters.

11
Bio-Inspired and Nano Sensing Medical Devices
Objectives

• To conduct collaborative research, development
  and education activities on bio-inspired medical
  devices with a focus on rehabilitation
  medicine, diagnostic medical devices and neural
  engineering to significantly enhance the
  quality of human life.

Technological Challenges

• Inadequate understanding of the biophysical
  mechanisms from the viewpoint of engineers.
• System integration of various sensors and
  actuators and their fabrication to perform
  desired tasks.
• Improved robustness with redundancy and
  durability.
• More cost-effective and efficient devices.
• Management and processing of large amount of data
• Nature of nonlinearity inherent in biological
  systems (e.g., synchronization and coherence).
• Novel materials to enhance performance of
  bio-inspired devices (e.g., bio-compatibility and
  artificial muscle with high force density).

Broader Impacts

• Improve quality of life for general public and
  the aging population
• Reduce healthcare costs
• Prepare future students and workforce through
  education and interdisciplinary research
• ??? a.k.a. industry-government-university
  collaboration
• Push the frontier of engineering research with
  relevance to physics-chemistry-biology

12
Grand Challenge

• Bio-Inspired and Nano Sensing Medical Devices
• Summary Bio-Inspired and Nano Sensing Medical
  Devices The grand challenge is the development
  of bio-inspired and nano-scale medical devices
  with a focus on rehabilitation medicine,
  diagnostic medical devices and neural engineering
  to significantly enhance the quality of human
  life. To respond to this grand challenge
  collaborative research is needed to understand
  principles and inspire new concepts for these
  bio-inspired devices. Topics to be addressed
  include (a) inadequate understanding of the
  biophysical mechanisms from the viewpoint of
  engineers, (b) system integration of various
  sensors and actuators and their fabrication to
  perform designed tasks of the devices, (c)
  improved robustness with redundancy and
  durability, (d) more cost-effective and efficient
  devices, (e) management and processing of large
  amount of data (e.g., population encoding), (f)
  nature of nonlinearity inherent in biological
  systems (e.g., synchronization and coherence),
  and (g) novel materials to enhance performance of
  bio-inspired devices (e.g., biocompatibility and
  artificial muscle with high force density).