Design Automation for Paper Microfluidics

低成本和一次性纸质微流控设备将在医疗诊断、生物医疗检测、食品/水供应和环境监测等应用领域产生根本性变化。目前，科学家们必须为每种应用手工设计新的设备，这既耗时、繁琐，又容易出错。该提案将使半导体工业设计方法适应纸张微流控技术，同时利用喷墨打印机和切纸机等标准设备进行制造。该项目将降低纸质微流控设备用户的准入门槛，并将促进它们在科学家中的广泛使用。现有纸质微流控设备的更广泛影响包括怀孕测试、艾滋病毒测试、药物测试等产品，其中每一种都是手工设计的一次性设备。通过该项目实现的生产率提高将降低纸质微流控设备的设计成本，这些节省可以直接传递给消费者。在加州大学河滨分校，PI和Co-PI将推出一门关于纸张微流体的跨学科本科课程，面向来自生物工程、生物学、生物医学科学、计算机科学/工程、化学和环境工程、环境科学、神经科学和医学院等系的学生。国际和平协会和联合国际将继续努力将妇女和代表不足的少数族裔学生纳入该项目，并将向更广泛的科学界/学术界传播在该项目过程中开发的教程、开放源码软件和教材。

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.