The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is an inclusive, innovative, and thriving educational and research environment that is making significant contributions to society through its research in a wide range of disciplines ranging from mechanics, robotics and automation, and energy systems, to bioengineering, nuclear and medical physics, and acoustics.
This installment of the Faces of Research Q&A series is with W. Hong Yeo, associate professor, Woodruff Faculty Fellow, and the director of the Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering.
What is your field of expertise and why did you choose it?
"Biosensors and Bioelectronics for Human Healthcare." I chose this area since I have always been interested in helping people with my research. So, I thought this was the best research area to do so.
What makes Georgia Tech research institutes unique?
Georgia Tech has an amazing research environment since we have super-talented faculty, students, and researchers from many different research fields, and this provides an excellent opportunity for interdisciplinary research.
What impact is your research having on the world?
My research that develops new biomedical devices could enhance human healthcare through advanced health monitoring, disease diagnosis, therapeutics, and persistent human-machine interfaces.
What is the most challenging aspect of your research?
That comes from the required collaboration with clinicians and other researchers. As mentioned earlier, my research is interdisciplinary, needing the understanding of multiple aspects of materials, biology, mechanics, manufacturing, electronics, and more. So, I have to find the best way to communicate with people in different disciplines and share knowledge to develop new biomedical solutions.
If you weren't a researcher, what would you be?
I have always wanted to be a calligraphy artist since I have spent more than 10 years in calligraphy since elementary school.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
It might be a healing power that could cure fatal diseases in humans.
Peralte C. Paul
peralte.paul@comm.gatech.edu
404.316.1210
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The Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN) has selected “In-Body Networks of Electronic Therapeutics” as the first project funded by the new IEN Exponential Electronics (IEN-EX) Seed Grant program. The project is led by Alex Abramson (PI) and W. Hong Yeo (Co-PI).
The interdisciplinary team hopes to develop a new form of wireless communication that enables a wearable patch to communicate with ingested and implanted devices regardless of their location in the body without the need for large electronic components or energy sources. If the project is successful, it could lead to the development of previously impossible minimally invasive electronic therapeutic devices such as ingestible insulin pumps and triggerable neurostimulation systems.
The IEN-EX program provides seed funding for Georgia Tech researchers to pursue “1000x” ideas within electronics or that bridge electronics with other technical domains. “1000x” ideas are those with the potential to improve one or more well-defined, but often overlooked or underappreciated, performance metrics by at least 1000x.
“Abramson and Yeo’s proposal is exactly why we created the IEN-EX program,” said Michael Filler, IEN’s associate director for research programs. “It articulates a compelling technical need at the intersection of disciplines and a targeted research program to ‘derisk’ key aspects of their vision. I am excited to see the work progress.”
Abramson is an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and his research focus is on creating implantable and ingestible drug delivery devices. Yeo is an associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and holds a courtesy appointment in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Yeo’s research is on developing wearable sensor systems that can wirelessly communicate with smartphones. By combining their expertise, the duo believes they can create a new technology that will revolutionize the field of bioelectronics.
“Engineering new human-machine interfaces is critical to developing personalized biomedical devices for more easily administrable treatments with fewer side effects,” said Abramson. “We are grateful that the IEN is supporting us in this endeavor.”
Both Abramson and Yeo are part of the Materials for Biomedical Systems initiative, a group of scientists at Georgia Tech and Emory dedicated to developing targeted and effective therapies using materials and electronic systems. This is the first collaborative grant awarded to the initiative.
Clean energy is the leading solution for climate change. But solar and wind power are inconsistent at producing enough energy for a reliable power grid. Alternatively, lithium-ion batteries can store energy but are a limited resource.
Abstract: Water is a basic human need. Nevertheless, more than 10% of the world’s population lacks access to safe drinking water. An effective water disinfection method is still not readily accessible to these people. In developed urban areas, water is typically disinfected in a centralized facility through chlorine-based methods that inevitably generates harmful disinfection byproducts.
To view the agenda and registration information, visit the Battery Day website at: research.gatech.edu/georgia-tech-battery-day
The Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN) at Georgia Tech has announced the Fall 2022 Core Facility Seed Grant winners. The primary purpose of this program is to give first- and second-year graduate students in diverse disciplines working on original and unfunded research in micro- and nanoscale projects the opportunity to access the most advanced academic cleanroom space in the Southeast. In addition to accessing the labs' high-level fabrication, lithography, and characterization tools, the awardees will have the opportunity to gain proficiency in cleanroom and tool methodology and access the consultation services provided by research staff members in IEN. Seed Grant awardees are also provided travel support to present their research at a scientific conference.
In addition to student research skill development, this biannual grant program gives faculty with novel research topics the ability to develop preliminary data to pursue follow-up funding sources. The Core Facility Seed Grant program is supported by the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), a member of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).
Since the start of the grant program in 2014, 82 projects from ten different schools in Georgia Tech’s Colleges of Engineering and Science, as well as the Georgia Tech Research Institute and three other universities, have been seeded.
The four winning projects in this round were awarded IEN cleanroom and lab access time to be used over the next year. In keeping with the interdisciplinary mission of IEN, the projects that will be enabled by the grants include research in microelectronics, optoelectronics, battery technology, and novel materials for energy harvesting.
The Fall 2022 IEN Core Facility Seed Grant Award winners are:
Aluminum Oxide/Silver Microcavities for Trapping Light and Producing Polariton Coupling
PI: Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena
Student: Martin Gomez
School of Materials Science and Engineering
Facile and Scalable Fabrication of 3D-Patterned Current Collectors for Li-metal Batteries
PI: Hailong Chen
Student: Jakub Pepas
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering/School of Materials Science and Engineering
Elucidating Connections between the Piezoelectric and Auxetic Responses of Cellulose
PI: Meisha Shofner
Student: Fariha Rubaiya
School of Materials Science and Engineering
Low-Cost, Self-Propagating, Reactive Nanoporous Ni/Al Interconnects for Low-Stress Die Assembly
PI: Vanessa Smet and Antonia Antoniou
Student: Ali Amirnasiri
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, is funded by NSF Grant ECCS-2025462.
Laurie Haigh
Research Communications