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Dear Biomch-L subscribers,
We are looking for graduate students for a new NSF-sponsored project entitled "Complex microsystem networks inspired by internal insect physiology." This is an integrative project that spans engineering, biology, and biomedical engineering. We are offering graduate support for up to four years of research.
The objective of this project is to understand how insects produce and control internal flows and to use this knowledge to create novel, highly efficient, bio-inspired microscale fluid-transport systems & devices. Current approaches to flow delivery and regulation in complex microsystems rely on targeted actuation and active, external control. In contrast, insects have evolved over millions of years to efficiently manage flows at the microscale with strikingly different methods. In their respiratory and circulatory systems, they produce flows using flexible tissues, simple actuation, and, we hypothesize, passive, distributed control built into the systems themselves. Our approach combines synchrotron x-ray imaging of internal insect dynamics, material characterization of insect vessels, fluid mechanics modeling and experiments, and advanced micromechanical fabrication technology.
This research aims to transform the accepted approach to fluid-based transport in small-scale systems based on inspiration from insect physiological systems. Changing the paradigm for flow delivery and regulation in small-scale systems has the potential lead to new bioengineered tissues and energy-efficient, biomedically-implantable microdevices.
NSF award details can be found here: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0938047 This project is also sponsored by Virginia Tech's Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS).
For further details, feel free to ask me, or contact the project PI: Dr. Jake Socha, jjsocha@vt.edu
Best regards,
Raffaella De Vita
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics
Virginia Tech
230 Norris Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: (540) 231-5905
E-mail: devita@vt.edu
Web page: www.esm.vt.edu/~devita
We are looking for graduate students for a new NSF-sponsored project entitled "Complex microsystem networks inspired by internal insect physiology." This is an integrative project that spans engineering, biology, and biomedical engineering. We are offering graduate support for up to four years of research.
The objective of this project is to understand how insects produce and control internal flows and to use this knowledge to create novel, highly efficient, bio-inspired microscale fluid-transport systems & devices. Current approaches to flow delivery and regulation in complex microsystems rely on targeted actuation and active, external control. In contrast, insects have evolved over millions of years to efficiently manage flows at the microscale with strikingly different methods. In their respiratory and circulatory systems, they produce flows using flexible tissues, simple actuation, and, we hypothesize, passive, distributed control built into the systems themselves. Our approach combines synchrotron x-ray imaging of internal insect dynamics, material characterization of insect vessels, fluid mechanics modeling and experiments, and advanced micromechanical fabrication technology.
This research aims to transform the accepted approach to fluid-based transport in small-scale systems based on inspiration from insect physiological systems. Changing the paradigm for flow delivery and regulation in small-scale systems has the potential lead to new bioengineered tissues and energy-efficient, biomedically-implantable microdevices.
NSF award details can be found here: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0938047 This project is also sponsored by Virginia Tech's Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS).
For further details, feel free to ask me, or contact the project PI: Dr. Jake Socha, jjsocha@vt.edu
Best regards,
Raffaella De Vita
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics
Virginia Tech
230 Norris Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: (540) 231-5905
E-mail: devita@vt.edu
Web page: www.esm.vt.edu/~devita