I am Jeff Wright and I teach physics at Louisville Male High School. During this fellowship I have been working with Dr. McNamara and researching Knudsen pumps. These pumps create a pressure difference across a membrane with nanopores in them. These small pores do not allow molecules to collide as they pass through, so if a temperature gradient is created on either side of the membrane, gases will flow from the more dense cold side of the membrane to the less dense hot reservoir. Alex, a Speed School student, is trying to develop a Knudsen pump which will administer medicine without electricity and just using body heat to create the temperature difference. Fiaz, a doctoral student, is trying to use thermal electrics which get hot on one side and cold on the other, as the pump membrane.
I have constructed several Knudsen pumps using different materials for membranes. Now that the poster has been constructed, this week I will be writing lesson plans which include a simulation in which the students walk near a door opening symbolizing hot and cold gas molecules and the door a nanopore in a membrane. I also have a computer simulation from PhET which is a good model. I now have to find inexpensive materials the students can use to build the Knudsen pumps. This may include concrete and agar for membranes, cola cans for heat sinking aluminum, light bulbs for heaters, rubber cement or caulk for glue. I am not sure what to use for tubing yet and it is $250 a roll. Surprisingly the technology is not a problem because the Gas Pressure sensors from Vernier which connect to Lab Pro and Lab Quest seem to measure these small pressures well enough to see a pressure drop. Some tubing taped to a ruler has been adequate enough to use as a flow rate monitor. I just have to start testing all of these "home made" supplies one at a time to see if they will work in the classroom.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
4th Annual Engineering Platforms EPSCoR Initiative Conference
The 4th Annual Engineering Platforms for Cellular and Molecular Signaling EPSCoR Conference will be held July 3rd.
Shumaker Research Building, rm 139
University of Louisville
Oral Presentations in morning
Yummy buffet lunch
Cleanroom tour
Poster presentations over desserts
Please come join us.
Monday, June 25, 2012
New Experiences
Hello all,
My name is Chris Williamson and I'm from Western KY, Union County to be exact. I accepted this fellowship position with little to no background information about the field of nanotechnology or micro-sensors. When I received the description of my lab, I was even more clueless as to what I would be researching during my tenure. We are now into the 3rd week, and I believe I have it figured out; however, I have been seemingly unable to truly describe what I'm doing to anyone other than my supervisor, or the other students with whom I have collaborated. My hope is that will change by the end of this week, preparing me for our presentations next week.
Essentially my goal for this one month period is to test the durability and reliability of simple circuit structures on a silicon gel or PDMS substrate. The idea, as I found reading various articles pertaining to micro-sensors, is to ultimately create a patch that will allow doctors to check vitals, physical therapists to track the progression of a muscle, or you to just keep up with your heart rate while exercising, by simply attaching a patch, full of these micro circuits, and that this patch will send all this information to whomever requires it, over a wireless. It sounds like a great plan and would help to revolutionize being sick, or injured, or just curious. It would allow us to live our lives, and not be cooped up in a hospital attached to 10 different machines, and countless tubes.
This week, I really hope to actually transcend the design phase and enter the building and testing phase of some of these. My thoughts are that the more bends and turns in the circuit, the more durable and reliable it will be, simply because it will have just a little more "give" than something that is straight. Here goes nothing!
Hope everyone is working diligently and successfully towards their end goal.
-- Chris
My name is Chris Williamson and I'm from Western KY, Union County to be exact. I accepted this fellowship position with little to no background information about the field of nanotechnology or micro-sensors. When I received the description of my lab, I was even more clueless as to what I would be researching during my tenure. We are now into the 3rd week, and I believe I have it figured out; however, I have been seemingly unable to truly describe what I'm doing to anyone other than my supervisor, or the other students with whom I have collaborated. My hope is that will change by the end of this week, preparing me for our presentations next week.
Essentially my goal for this one month period is to test the durability and reliability of simple circuit structures on a silicon gel or PDMS substrate. The idea, as I found reading various articles pertaining to micro-sensors, is to ultimately create a patch that will allow doctors to check vitals, physical therapists to track the progression of a muscle, or you to just keep up with your heart rate while exercising, by simply attaching a patch, full of these micro circuits, and that this patch will send all this information to whomever requires it, over a wireless. It sounds like a great plan and would help to revolutionize being sick, or injured, or just curious. It would allow us to live our lives, and not be cooped up in a hospital attached to 10 different machines, and countless tubes.
This week, I really hope to actually transcend the design phase and enter the building and testing phase of some of these. My thoughts are that the more bends and turns in the circuit, the more durable and reliable it will be, simply because it will have just a little more "give" than something that is straight. Here goes nothing!
Hope everyone is working diligently and successfully towards their end goal.
-- Chris
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