PECASE: Harnessing Electrokinetic Flow Instabilities for Next Generation Microfluidics

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Proposal Title: PECASE: Harnessing Electrokinetic Flow Instabilities for NextGeneration MicrofluidicsInstitution: Stanford UniversityAmong the greatest engineering challenges of the century are the development of technologies that will enable massively parallel drug discovery efforts, biomedical device design, fundamental genetics research, proteomics, and rapid and miniaturized biological weapon detection. On-chip microfluidics has an important and expanding role in the realization of such tools and offers the potential of massively parallel chemical laboratories on a chip. Electrokinetic (EK) devices, in particular, combine "work-horse" processes such aselectrophoresis, binding assays, and electro-chromatography with a precise control of sample streams in compact, easy-to-fabricate devices with no moving parts. Recent experiments performed in the Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory demonstrate that there is an important class of EK flows that are not well understood and largely undocumented: EK flow instabilities that arise in heterogeneous property liquid streams. These instabilities occur in a variety of geometries relevant to on-chip assays, and flows with ionic conductivity gradients are particularly susceptible. The research plan is integrated closely with undergraduate and graduate teaching and the recruitment and retention of students of underrepresented groups in engineering at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate level. NSF funding will enable several key efforts. First is a significant expansion of an ongoing effort to convert teaching material from three engineering classes into a multimedia format that leverages screen-projected and animated notes as well as digitized movie clips for effective lecturing. Funding will also be used to expand the student base of a newly-developed course on Fluid Flow in Microdevices by making the course available to other institutions (including industry and government labs) via the Stanford Instructional Television Network. Third, NSF funds will be used to recruit students of underrepresented groups by leveraging a collaboration with the Foundation for a College Education (FCE) to conduct a series of workshops to advise high school students on planning for college, completing college applications (e.g., help with college essays), and introducing them to the many rewards of careers in science and engineering. At the undergraduate level, NSF funding will be used to increase student involvement in research by expanding a collaboration with Stanford's Office of Engineering Diversity Programs. At the graduate level, the award will help the applicant expand his role in actively mentoring and motivating graduate students fromunderrepresented groups in the developing field of microfluidics research.This project was originally funded as a CAREER award, and was converted to a Presidential Early Career Award for Engineers and Scientists (PECASE) award in September 2004.