CAREER: Simultaneous and Independent Control of Nanostructured Objects Through the Use of Coupled External Electric Fields

该学院早期职业发展计划（Career）项目将支持通过共享外部电场对纳米物体进行大规模操作的研究，因此，它将在新材料、药物输送和医疗设备以及电子产品的开发中具有强大的潜力。纳米操纵使得纳米结构在原型和组装纳米级器件时能够灵活机动和精确定位。然而，目前的纳米操作技术并不适合于精确可靠地独立操作大量纳米尺度物体。克服现有的障碍将使廉价的功能性纳米器件的高效制造成为可能。该奖项将产生基础知识、方法和工具，用于大规模操作广泛的微纳米尺度对象，重点是利用耦合外电场在三维微流体环境中进行纳米操作。此外，这项研究将导致高效和廉价的神经形态纳米线网络，模仿生物神经元所表现出的行为。这些进步可能会彻底改变应用于下一代人工智能硬件的神经形态计算，使美国在人工智能领域更具竞争力。这项研究将与K-12、本科、研究生和终身学习水平的教育相结合。这些外展活动将为STEM人才储备做好准备，并激励女性和未被充分代表的少数族裔从事STEM职业。移动和控制大量微观和纳米尺度物体的能力具有重要的工业和生物医学应用。然而，自动化主要局限于在小的工作空间卷中移动有限数量的对象。本研究旨在发现运动控制框架，该框架可以在耦合外电场下同时但独立地操纵许多纳米尺寸的物体。研究目标是：(1)在普通电场条件下，对复杂三维微流控环境中大量介质设计自适应鲁棒集成控制；(2)分析系统的可控性和可操作性，识别最有效的电极模式，规划单个目标的有效轨迹；(3)研究控制方案，使功能纳米器件组装应用于下一代神经形态计算。从长远来看，该研究将通过对大量物体的操纵，为自动化微尺度和纳米尺度生物工厂的工程工具提供支持，这将对靶向给药和精准医学工程产生重大影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) project will support research that will enable the large-scale manipulation of nano-sized objects by using a shared external electric field, and, as such, it will have strong potential to impact important applications in the development of new materials, drug-delivery and medical devices, and electronics. Nanomanipulation enables the flexible maneuvering and precise positioning of nanostructures in both prototyping and assembling nanoscale devices. However, current nanomanipulation techniques are not well-suited for independently manipulating large numbers of nanoscale objects precisely and reliably. Overcoming existing barriers will allow the efficient manufacture of inexpensive functional nanodevices. This award will generate the fundamental knowledge, methodologies, and tools for large-volume manipulation of a broad class of micro- and nano-scale objects, by focusing on using coupled external electric fields to perform nanomanipulation in three-dimensional microfluidic environments. Additionally, this research will lead to efficient and inexpensive neuromorphic nanowire networks that mimic the behaviors exhibited by biological neurons. These advances could revolutionize neuromorphic computing as applied to next-generation artificial intelligence hardware, making the nation more competitive in the field of artificial intelligence. The research will be integrated with education at the K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and lifelong learning levels. The outreach activities will prime the STEM pipeline and inspire women and underrepresented minorities towards STEM careers.The ability to move and control large numbers of micro- and nano-scale objects has important industrial and biomedical applications. However, automation has been mostly restricted to moving a limited number of objects in small workspace volumes. This research aims to discover motion-control frameworks that serve to simultaneously, but independently, manipulate many nano-sized objects under coupled external electric fields. The research objectives are to (1) design an adaptive robust ensemble control for great quantities of agents in a complex three-dimensional microfluidic environment under common electric fields; (2) analyze the controllability and manipulability of the system to identify the most effective electrode pattern and plan efficient trajectories of individual objects; and (3) investigate control schemes that enable functional nanodevice assembly with applications to next-generation neuromorphic computing. In the long term, this research will support engineering tools for automated microscale and nanoscale bio-factories through the manipulation of large volumes of objects, which will have significant impacts on target-oriented drug delivery and precision medicine engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.