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）项目将支持研究，通过使用共享的外部电场来实现纳米尺寸物体的大规模操作，因此，它将具有强大的潜力来影响新材料，药物输送和医疗设备以及电子产品开发中的重要应用。纳米操纵使纳米结构在原型制作和组装纳米器件中能够灵活操纵和精确定位。然而，目前的纳米操纵技术并不适合独立地精确和可靠地操纵大量的纳米级物体。克服现有的障碍将使廉价的功能纳米器件的有效制造。该奖项将产生的基础知识，方法和工具，大规模操纵的一个广泛的类别的微米和纳米尺度的对象，通过专注于使用耦合的外部电场在三维微流体环境中进行nanomipulation。此外，这项研究将导致有效和廉价的神经形态纳米线网络，模仿生物神经元表现出的行为。这些进步可能会彻底改变神经形态计算应用于下一代人工智能硬件，使国家在人工智能领域更具竞争力。该研究将与K-12，本科，研究生和终身学习水平的教育相结合。这些推广活动将为STEM管道做好准备，并激励妇女和代表性不足的少数群体走向STEM职业。移动和控制大量微米和纳米级物体的能力具有重要的工业和生物医学应用。然而，自动化主要限于在小的工作空间体积中移动有限数量的对象。这项研究的目的是发现运动控制框架，用于同时，但独立地，操纵耦合外部电场下的许多纳米尺寸的物体。研究目标是：（1）设计一种自适应鲁棒集成控制器，用于在三维复杂微流控环境中对多个智能体进行控制;（2）分析系统的可控性和可操作性，以确定最有效的电极模式和规划单个智能体的有效轨迹;和（3）研究控制方案，使功能纳米器件组装与下一代神经形态计算的应用。从长远来看，这项研究将通过操纵大量物体来支持自动化微尺度和纳米尺度生物工厂的工程工具，这将对靶向药物输送和精确医学工程产生重大影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.