Design Automation for Paper Microfluidics

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Low-cost and disposable paper microfluidic devices are poised to make radical changes in applications such as point-of-care diagnostics, biothreat detection, and food/water supply and environmental monitoring. Scientists presently must design new devices for each application by hand, which is time-consuming, tedious, and error-prone. This proposal will adapt the semiconductor industry design methodologies to paper microfluidic technologies, while leveraging standard equipment such as inkjet printers and paper cutters for fabrication. This project will lower the barrier-to-entry for users of paper microfluidic devices, and will promote their widespread use among scientists. The broader impacts of existing paper microfluidic devices include products such as pregnancy tests, HIV tests, drug tests, and others, each of which is a one-off device designed by hand. The productivity enhancements attained through this project will reduce the design cost of paper microfluidic devices, and these savings can be passed directly to the consumer. At the University of California, Riverside, the PI and Co-PI will introduce an interdisciplinary undergraduate course on paper microfluidics targeting students from departments such as Bioengineering, Biology, Biomedical sciences, Computer Science/Engineering, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Neuroscience, and the School of Medicine. The PI and co-PI will continue their ongoing successful efforts to include women and underrepresented minority students in this project, and will disseminate tutorials, open source software, and educational materials developed in the course of this project to the wider scientific/academic community.