Old News

2018

October 8, 2018

Our paper was accepted into the Journal of Microelectronics and Electronic Packaging

Daniela A. Torres, Anthony Kopa, Sara C. Baron, Robert McCormick, Robert D. White, and Caprice Gray, "Characterization of Low Inductance Micro-coaxial Cables for Power Distribution", Journal of Microelectronics and Electronic Packaging, accepted article, article in press October 8, 2018.

September 5, 2018

For the new semester, 3 undergraduate researchers will be working in the lab

Brian Reaney will work on Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric Microsystems, Spencer Schmid will be working as a NSF LSAMP Scholar (topic to be determined), and Martin Majkut will continue his summer work on foam robots. Glad to have everyone in the lab!

September 4, 2018

Nikolas Kastor defended his PhD thesis on Design, Manufacturing and Control of Soft Foam Robots!

Niko has been a member of the microscale sensors and systems lab since 2012, when he started his part time MS thesis. He has been full time at Tufts as a PhD student since 2014. Niko will be moving to Yon Visell's lab at University of California, Santa Barbara, to start a postdoctoral position in haptics and touch perception in robotics. Congratulations, Niko!!

July 31, 2018

Haotian "Arthur" Zhao completed his research project on acoustic arrays using MEMS microphones. Arthur will be starting full time as a engineer at Vesper MEMS in Boston.

May 23, 2018

Martin Majkut, Mechanical Engineering rising senior, joined the group as a Tufts summer scholar working on soft material robotics.

May 8, 2018

Our patent on shear stress sensor arrays issued!

Robert D. White and Zhengxin Zhao, U.S. Patent 9,964,476, "Shear Sensor Array", issued May 8, 2018.

May 1, 2018

Daniela Torres presented a paper and won best student paper award:

Daniela Torres, Caprice Gray-Haley, Tony Kopa, Brian Smith, Sara Baron, Peter Lewis, and Robert White "Co-fabrication of micro-coaxial interconnects and substrate junctions for multi-chip microelectronic systems" International Microelectronics and Packaging Society New England Chapter Symposium and Expo (May 1, 2018)

BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD

April 17-20, 2018

Three MS students defended their theses successfully!
Xinyu Shi, "Ultrasound Transducers for a Simplified Martian Acoustic Anemometer", MS Thesis, Tufts University, 2018.

Gardy Ligonde, "A Micromachined Torsional Electric Field Sensor", MS Thesis, Tufts University, 2018.

Daniela Torres, "An In-Situ Microcoaxial Fabrication and Attachment Strategy", MS Thesis, Tufts University, 2018.

Feb 12, 2018

Haotian "Arthur" Zhao has joined the group as a research engineer. Arthur will work on arrays of MEMS microphones for directional sensing in consumer product applications. This work is in collaboration with Vesper MEMS.

2017

Dec 20, 2017

A sponsored research agreement was signed with Vesper MEMS. The purpose of the work is to investigate "Arrays of MEMS Microphones for Directional Sensing". The contract runs from Feb 1 - July 31 and will allow us to hire a staff research engineer.

Nov 6, 2017

A paper many years in the making was accepted to Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

Nikolas Kastor, Zhengxin Zhao, and Robert D. White, Multiphysics Model Investigating Performance of a Micromachined Floating Element Shear Stress Sensor, accepted to Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2017.

Sept 22, 2017

A Letter to the Editor of the Journal to Soft Robotics authored by Nikolas Kastor, Vishesh Vikas, Eliad Cohen and Prof. White has just published. We are interested to hear the response from the community on these thoughts.

Nikolas Kastor, Vishesh Vikas, Eliad Cohen, and Robert D. White, A Definition of Soft Materials for Use in the Design of Robots, Journal of Soft Robotics, vol 4, no 3, September 2017, pp. 181-182.

Sept 15, 2017.

Wang Kyung-Sung has completed his postdoctoral associate reserach with the group and has left Tufts to seek a career in the MEMS industry. We wish Wang all the best and hope that he will be back at Tufts often to visit and to continue working with us.

Sept 13, 2017.

A Tescan Vega 3 scanning electron microscope has just been installed in the Tufts Micro and Nano Fab. The microscope will allow imaging of nanoscale samples down to sub 10 nm resolution, and will allow electron beam lithography processes for writing features at the sub 100 nm scale. We are excited about the opportunities this will afford students and researchers at Tufts, and are grateful to the Richard H Lufkin Memorial Trust for providing the funding to make this purchase.

July 28,2017.

Ernest Kabuye successfully defended his masters of science thesis, "Influence of Surgeon Technique on Screw Pullout Strength in Spinal Fusion Surgery". Congratulations, Ernest!

June 27-30, 2017

PhD student Nikolas Kastor will be traveling to Sapporo, Japan to deliver a paper at the Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines workshop (AMAM 2017). His foam robot will also make an appearance in the "Robot Zoo".

Nikolas Kastor, Ritwika Mukherjee, Eliad Cohen, Vishesh Vikas, Barry Trimmer and Robert D. White, SLABot: An Experiment in the Design of Soft Bodied Robots, demonstration at the Robot Zoo, in the 8th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines, AMAM 2017, Sapporo, Japan, June 27 - 30, 2017.

Nikolas Kastor, Ritwika Mukherjee, Eliad Cohen, Vishesh Vikas, Barry Trimmer and Robert D. White, Locomotion of a Simple Foam Robot in the 8th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines, AMAM 2017, Sapporo, Japan, June 27 - 30, 2017.

Video submission

June 21, 2017. An article by MS student Peter Lewis (now at Draper labs) is on the cover of Advancing Microelectronics Magazine.

Peter Lewis, Robert White, and Brian Smith, "Lessons Learned in the Implementation of Aerosol Jet Printing for Fabricating Multilayer Circuit Boards" in Advancing Microelectronics Magazine: May 2017, Vol. 44, No. 3, pp. 12-15. PDF of the paper. News article on the Tufts site.

June 14, 2017. Our paper (primarily driven by Cassandra and others in Barry Trimmer's group!) was accepted to IROS.

Cassandra M. Donatelli, Zachary T. Serlin, Piers Echols-Jones, Anthony E. Scibelli, Alexandra Cohen, Jeanne-Marie Musca, Shane Rozen-Levy, David Buckingham, Robert White, and Barry A. Trimmer, "Soft Foam Robot with Caterpillar-Inspired Gait Regimes for Terrestrial Locomotion" in the 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017), Vancouver, CA, September 24-28, 2017.

June 5, 2017. Xinyu "Henry" Shi joined the group as a research assistant. He will be working on ultrasound transducers for sonic anemometry on Mars.

June 5, 2017. Camille Mbayo joined the group as a summer scholar. She will be working on Aluminum Nitride thin film piezoelectric materials for MEMS microphones and ultrasound transducers.

May 3, 2017. Camille Mbayo presents her undergraduate research project "Measurement of Stress-Strain Curves in an Open Cell Polyurethane Foam" at the ME94 poster session.

May 2, 2017. Two papers were presented by graduate students Daniela Torres and Nikolas Kastor at the 44th iMAPS (international microelectronics assembly and packaging society) New England Symposium and Expo. Both papers won best student paper awards!!!

Daniela A. Torres, S.C Barron, A. Kopa, M.R Miller, A.P Magyar, P.H. Lewis, M.W. Meinhold, C.L. Gray and R.D White, "Fabrication and Characterization of Novel Low Inductance Micro-Coaxial Cables", in the 44th iMAPS New England Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, MA, May 2, 2017. [Best Student Paper Award #1]

Nikolas Kastor and Robert D. White, "Fabrication of Conformal Electronics Packaging with Microfluidic Eutectic Metal Interconnects", in the 44th iMAPS New England Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, MA, May 2, 2017. [Best Student Paper Award #2]

April 28, 2017. Prof. White received the "Faculty Teaching and Mentoring Award" for the School of Engineering as recommended by the Graduate Student Council.

April 10, 2017. Xinyu "Henry" Shi will join the group this summer as a Research Assistant working on ultrasound transducers for our NASA program "A Simplified Martian Acoustic Anemometer".

March 27, 2017. Camille Mbayo was selected as a Tufts Summer Scholar and will work in the lab this summer on "Aluminum Nitride as a Stepping-stone for Scandium Doped Aluminum Nitride".

March 2017. Our contract with Vesper MEMS for "Scandium Doped Aluminum Nitride as a Material for MEMS Acoustic Sensors" was Ammended with additional funds to extend the contract through September.

February 2017. National Institute for Aerospace subcontract from NASA "MEMS Surface Shear Sensors" awarded to the group.

2016

Sept 29, 2016. Paper published by Prof. Zenyuk and graduate student Dinesh Sabarirajan using ALD platinum from our lab for fuel cell electrode arrays:

Dinesh C. Sabarirajan, James Vlahakis, Robert D. White, Iryna V. Zenyuk, "Electrochemical Characterization of Free-standing Platinum Nanoelectrode Array Using Atomic Layer Deposition for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells", Transactions of the Electrochemical Society, 75(14) pp. 747-255, 2016.

Sept 1, 2016. Daniela Torres and Kevin Ligonde are now graduate students in the group, working as Draper Fellows at Draper Labs and pursuing their MS degrees with us.

May 5, 2016. Undergraduate student Kevin Ligonde defended his Bachelors of Science thesis.

Gardy Kevin Ligonde, "Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers for Martian Anemometry", Bachelors of Science Thesis, Tufts University, May 5, 2016.

May 4, 2016. Undergraduate student Daniela Torres defended her Bachelors of Science thesis.

Daniela Torres, "MEMS Shear Sensor", Bachelors of Science Thesis, Tufts University, May 4, 2016.

May 2, 2016. PhD student Nikolas Kastor, MS student Peter Lewis, and Prof. White all gave talks at the 43rd IMAPS (international microelectronics assembly and packaging society) New England Symposium.

Nikolas Kastor and Robert D. White, "Liquid Metal Interconnects for Conformable Sensor Packaging Enabling Inertial Measurements of Animals and Soft Robots" in the 43rd iMAPS New England Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, MA, May 3, 2016.

Robert D. White, Peter Lewis, and Brian Smith "Packaging of MEMS for Aerodynamic Measurements" in the 43rd iMAPS New England Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, MA, May 3, 2016. Invited talk.

Peter Lewis, Brian Smith and Robert D. White,"Printed Transceiver Circuit for System-on-chip Sensor and Processor" in the 43rd iMAPS New England Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, MA, May 3, 2016.

April 25, 2016. PhD candidate Nikolas Kastor joins a group of Tufts students from Mechanical Engineering, Biology and Computer Science at Soft Robotics Week 2016 in Livorno Italy. The students have 3 devices that will compete in the RoboSoft Grand Challenge - two in the Terrestrial Race event, and 1 in the Manipulation event.

April 20, 2016. Graduate student Peter Lewis defended his Masters of Science thesis.

Lewis, P. "Aerosol Jet Deposited Conductors and Dielectrics for Rapid Fabrication of Heterogeneous Electronic Systems", M.S. Thesis, Tufts University, May 2016. LINK to the thesis at the Tufts library.

January 7, 2016. Dr. Wang-kyung Sung officially joined the group as a postdoctoral scholar. Wang will be working on piezoelectric materials for acoustic microsystems.

2015

December 1, 2015. Boris Raskin successfully defended his MS thesis, "Aeroelastic Characteristics of a Rapid Prototype Multi-Material Wind Tunnel Model of a Mechanically Deployable Aerodynamic Decelerator".

November 30, 2015. Dr. Wang-kyung Sung will be joining the group as a postdoctoral scholar. His visa was just approved!

October 23, 2015. Daniela Torres and Kevin Ligonde presented posters at the Northeast Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Poster Symposium.

Kevin Ligonde and Robert D. White, "Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers For Martian Anemometry" , presented at the Northeast Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Poster Symposium, NeLSAMP 2015, October 23, 2015.

Daniela Torres and Robert D. White, "Fabrication of a MEMS Floating Element Shear Sensor Array for 2D Pressure Gradient and Shear Stress Sensitivity Measurements", presented at the Northeast Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Poster Symposium, NeLSAMP 2015, October 23, 2015.

October 23, 2015. Prof. White applied for a US patent with collaborators from Music and Electrical Engineering.

Paul D. Lehrman, Chris Penny, Cody Chen, Noel Hwang, Robert White, "Synthesizer with Cymbal Actuator", US patent application Serial No. 14/921,267, filed October 23, 2015.

October 20-23, 2015. Prof. White traveled to Toronto to participate in a wind tunnel test with Bombardier Aerospace at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Testing of the 64 element Tufts MEMS microphone array was conducted alongside Knowles and B&K transducers.

September 25, 2015. James Magarian, Prof. Matson and Prof. White had a paper accepted to the Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering.

Magarian, J., White, R. D., and Matson, D., "Real-Time Acoustic and Pressure Characterization of Two-Phase Flow for Quality Control of Expanded Polystyrene Injection Molding Processes", Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, accepted article, article in press, 2015

September 21, 2015.

Max Hill has accepted a position at Hstar Technologies working on medical robots. He will take a leave of absence from the PhD program. Good luck Max! We hope you come back.

August 24, 2015. Niko Kastor and Max Hill had a paper accepted to the New Frontiers and Applications for Soft Robotics workshop at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015):

Nikolas Kastor, Maxwell Hill, Vishesh Vikas, Robert D. White and Barry Trimmer, "Semi-autonomous Soft Robotic Platform for Terrestrial Locomotion" in the workshop on New Frontiers and Applications for Soft Robotics at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015), Hamburg, Germany, September 28 - October 03, 2015.

July 16, 2015. Max Hill successfully defended his Masters thesis "Robotic Communication and Ssing Using Structural Vibration in Natural Waveguides"

June 29, 2015. Max Hill's paper was accepted to IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015):

Maxwell Hill, Prasong Mekdara, Barry Trimmer, Robert David White, "Structural Vibration for Robotic Communication and Sensing on One-Dimensional Structures" in the 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015), Hamburg, Germany, September 28 - October 03, 2015.

June 23, 2015. Max Hill and Niko Kastor presented posters at the Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2015) workshop:

Maxwell Hill, Prasong Mekdara, Barry Trimmer, and Robert David White, "Structural Vibration for Robotic Communication and Sensing on One-Dimensional Structures", in the 7th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2015), Cambridge, MA, June 21-25, 2015.

Nikolas Kastor, Jeffrey S. Guasto, and Robert D. White, "A Synthetic Microswimmer with an Acoustically-Actuated Flagellum", in the 7th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2015), Cambridge, MA, June 21-25, 2015.

June 19, 2015. A provisional patent was filed on Niko Kastor's microswimmer:

Robert D. White, Nikolas Kastor, Jeffrey S. Guasto and Nicolas Waisbord, "Flagellum Driven Microswimmer", US provisional patent application Serial No. 62/181,890, filed June 19, 2015.

May 5, 2015. MS student Peter Lewis presented a poster, and Prof. White gave a talk, at the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (iMAPS) New England Chapter 42nd Symposium and Expo:

Peter Lewis, Parshant Kumar, Robert D. White, and Brian R. Smith, "Deposition Characteristics and Electrical Properties of Silver and CNT Inks Deposited by Aerosol Jet", at the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (iMAPS) New England Chapter 42nd Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, Massachusetts, May 5, 2015.

White, R. D., "Aerodynamic Testing of MEMS Surface Sensors", at the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (iMAPS) New England Chapter 42nd Symposium and Expo, Boxborough, Massachusetts, May 5, 2015.

April 5, 2015. Max Hill and Niko Kastor's papers were accepted to the Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2015) workshop:

Maxwell Hill, Prasong Mekdara, Barry Trimmer, and Robert David White, "Structural Vibration for Robotic Communication and Sensing on One-Dimensional Structures", in the 7th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2015), Cambridge, MA, June 21-25, 2015.

Nikolas Kastor, Jeffrey S. Guasto, and Robert D. White, "A Synthetic Microswimmer with an Acoustically-Actuated Flagellum", in the 7th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2015), Cambridge, MA, June 21-25, 2015.

March 5, 2015. Max Hill submitted a paper to the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015):

Maxwell Hill, Prasong Mekdara, Barry Trimmer, Robert David White, "Structural Vibration for Robotic Communication and Sensing on One-Dimensional Structures" submitted to the 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Hamburg, Germany, September 28 - October 03, 2015. Submitted March 5, 2015

October 29-30, 2014. Two papers were presented by Dominic Guri and Chris Penny at the Acoustical Society of America Meeting in Indianapolis:

Dominic Guri and Robert D. White, "Signal Processing for Velocity and Range Measurement using a Micromachined Ultrasound Transducer" at the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Undergraduate Research Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 28, 2014.

Devyn P. Curley, Zachary A. Hanan, Dan Luo, Christopher W. Penny, Christopher F. Rodriguez, Paul D Lehrman, Chris B. Rogers, Robert D. White, "Experimental Investigation of Crash Cymbal Acoustic Quality", 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 30, 2014.

October 24, 2014. A US patent was submitted on our MEMS shear sensor technology

Robert D. White and Zhengxin Zhao, "Shear Sensor Array", US application number PCT/US2014/522653, filed October 24, 2014. Claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Serial No. 61/895,802, filed October 25, 2013.

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