Design Automation for Paper Microfluidics

低成本和一次性纸质微流体设备有望在护理点诊断、生物威胁检测以及食品/水供应和环境监测等应用中产生根本性的变化。目前，科学家必须手工为每个应用设计新设备，这既耗时、乏味又容易出错。该提案将使半导体工业设计方法适应纸微流体技术，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使用者的准入门槛，并将促进其在科学家中的广泛使用。现有纸质微流体设备的更广泛影响包括妊娠测试、HIV测试、药物测试等产品，每种产品都是手工设计的一次性设备。通过该项目实现的生产力提高将降低纸质微流体设备的设计成本，这些节省可以直接传递给消费者。在加州大学滨江，PI和Co-PI将介绍一门关于纸微流体的跨学科本科课程，目标学生来自生物工程，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。PI和co-PI将继续其正在进行的成功努力，将妇女和代表性不足的少数民族学生纳入该项目，并将向更广泛的科学/学术界传播在该项目过程中开发的教程，开源软件和教育材料。

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.