Fall/Winter 2012 Vol. 3, No. 2 Published twice a year Massachusetts Institute of Technology In This Issue: The customizable 2-A Professor Roger Alumna Danielle MechEConnects degree offers in-depth Kamm’s 3D device Zurovcik (PhD ‘12) undergraduate study in enables never-been- develops low-cost News from the MIT a number of subfields... seen intravasation... wound therapy for Department of Mechanical Engineering | > p. 12 | | > p. 14 | emerging markets... | > p. 21 |

Bioengineering: A Mechanical MechE continues its tradition of pushing Engineering Crossroads boundaries and discovering new frontiers in bioengineering | > p. 4 | MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 2

Dear Friends,

Innovation at Education and research innovations in mechanical engineering are increasingly occurring at the interfaces of our disciplines. This is true not only within our department but also between MechE and the Interfaces other broad disciplines, such as materials science, chemistry, and electrical engineering. This issue of MechE Connects focuses on the exciting advances being made in bioengineering – the interface between mechanical engineering and biology.

The MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering was at the vanguard of bioengineering research before it was even recognized as an academic field. In the 1960s Robert Mann developed the first EMG-controlled prosthetic arm, and Ascher Shapiro and C. Forbes Dewey produced remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease. In the 1970s Ioannis V. Yannas developed the first artificial skin.

Today we continue to bridge the boundaries between biology and mechanical engineering. Research continues not only in the medical sphere, where you will read about advances in bioinstrumentation and biomedical devices, but also in bio-inspired design, where we look to snails and cheetahs for mechanical solutions, and in the emerging field of biomolecular and cellular control systems.

In this issue, we showcase the immense impact our faculty research has had on human health and comfort, consumer empowerment, and fundamental biological understanding. We recognize the lifetime achievement of two incredible bioengineers in our department, Professor Ioannis V. Yannas and C. Forbes Dewey Jr, and highlight current faculty members who are defining new frontiers in biology and inventing life-changing technologies.

For more information on our faculty’s areas of research focus, I invite you to visit our interactive faculty grid at http://meche.mit.edu/people/cloud.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Sincerely,

Mary C. Boyce, Ford Professor of Engineering and Department Head Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Fall/Winter 2012 Vol. 3, No. 2 Published twice a year

News from the MIT MechEConnects Department of Mechanical Engineering

> mecheconnects.mit.edu

About MechE Table of Contents

Mechanical engineering was one of the original courses of study offered when classes 4-10 Feature: Bioengineering: A Mechanical Engineering Crossroads began at the Massachusetts Institute of 11 Faculty Spotlight: Professor Ioannis V. Yannas Technology in 1865. Today, the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) comprises 12-13 Course 2-A: The Flexible Degree seven principal research areas: 14-15 Faculty Research: Professor Roger Kamm • Mechanics: modeling, experimentation, and computation 16 Faculty Research: Professor Harry Asada

17-18 Faculty Research: Professor Rohit Karnik • Design, manufacturing, and product development 19-20 Alumni Spotlight: Davide Marini, CEO and Cofounder, Firefly BioWorks

• Controls, instrumentation, 21-22 Alumni Spotlight: Danielle Zurovcik, CEO and Founder, WiCare and robotics 22-24 Faculty Spotlight: Professor C. Forbes Dewey Jr.

• Energy science and engineering 24-27 Faculty Promotions

• Ocean science and engineering 27 New Faculty

• Bioengineering 28-29 Department News

30-31 Professor Ian W. Hunter Talks Shop • Nano/micro science and technology

ON THE COVER: A high-throughput/high-content 3D imaging bioinstrument developed by Each of these disciplines encompasses the So BioInstrumentation Lab, led by Professor Peter So, is featured on this issue’s cover. Photo by Tony Pulsone. several laboratories and academic programs that foster modeling, analysis, computation, Contact MechE Newsletter Staff: and experimentation. MechE educational Department of Mechanical Engineering Alissa Mallinson programs remain leading-edge by providing Massachusetts Institute of Technology Managing Editor in-depth instruction in engineering principles 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-174 Cambridge, MA 02139 Sucharita Berger Ghosh and unparalleled opportunities for students to Administrative Officer apply their knowledge. E-mail: [email protected] B. Harris Crist mecheconnects.mit.edu Webmaster facebook.com/mitmeche twitter.com/mitmeche Wing Ngan Designer

Tony Pulsone, M. Scott Brauer, Donna Coveney, Nicolle Rager Fuller, Mauro Martino Photography Credit MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 4

Bioengineering: A Mechanical Engineering Crossroads by Alissa Mallinson

MIT’s Department of super microscopes that allow 3D Mechanical Engineering single-cell visualizations of ex has been at the forefront of vivo animal organs, and Associate cutting-edge bioengineering Professor Domitilla Del Vecchio since before its inception, is designing feedback controllers with renowned MIT MechE faculty in cells to realize biological members like Ioannis V. Yannas operational amplifiers. developing the first artificial skin, Robert Mann creating the first Bioengineering is a field with EMG-controlled prosthetic arm, tremendous opportunities for and Ascher Shapiro and C. Forbes impacting human health. It is Assistant Professor Sangbae Kim works on his lab’s current bio- inspired project, the robotic cheetah. Dewey Jr. uncovering the mysteries rich with mystery and possibility, of cardiovascular disease. and has opened the flood gates for exploration and exploitation, Bio-inspired Design A short 40 years later, many for engineers in particular, who Although recently coined as “bio- groundbreaking discoveries are now applying biological inspired design,” the idea of applying have been made that moved principles to mechanical design nature’s refined designs to man- the field forward by leaps and and, conversely, mechanical made creations is one that can be bounds – levels of fundamental engineering principles to the traced back to the time of Leonardo understanding and technological understanding of biology, da Vinci, whose observations of advancements that could barely advancing both fields dramatically biology informed much of his work. have been imagined when MechE in the process. “Engineers reveal Several noteworthy inventions were first began research activities nature’s principles by building,” created in much this same way: the in bioengineering. Professor says Professor Ian W. Hunter. airplane, from studying the flight of Roger Kamm has developed in “The act of building forces you winged animals, and Velcro, from vitro microfluidic devices into a to pose questions you might not noticing burrs attached to dog hair, to class of their own, advancing the have asked yourself otherwise, and name two well-known examples. understanding of cancer metastasis bioengineering is no exception.” and paving the way for life- These days, that same principle is changing drug delivery. Associate Our faculty are focused on being used to design more efficient, Professor Anette “Peko” Hosoi and multiple facets of bioengineering, flexible robots, such as Professor Assistant Professor Amos Winter including bio-inspired design, Sangbae Kim’s robotic cheetah or have created robots that burrow bioinstrumentation, biomedical Professor Hosoi’s robotic snail. and anchor in the ocean inspired devices, and biomolecular systems by the natural burrowing of clams, and control. Major new trends “Technology maturity has reached and Professor Harry Asada has continue to arise from and a certain threshold at this point developed light-activated artificial influence their research, such as that encourages people to apply the muscles for robotic movement. bio-integrated engineering and principles we learn from animals and Professor Peter So has developed consumer empowerment. nature,” says Kim. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 5

Bioengineering: A Mechanical Engineering Crossroads

trend: consumer empowerment. “People are getting tired of relying on experts for everything,” says Hunter. “They want to empower themselves with the ability to measure things on their own. In the past, people would have their blood pressure measured at a doctor’s office, but now there’s no reason you can’t do this at home. But what else would people like to measure? You could have portable diagnostic devices in the home that would analyze blood samples, or you could Assistant Professor Sangbae Kim works on his lab’s current bio- An audiologist demonstrates the Lantos Scanner, developed by Professor even look through the tissue to inspired project, the robotic cheetah. Douglas Hart and commercialzed by his company Lantos Technologies. analyze blood, ultimately bringing the instrument to the specimen “We’re not copying biological fully biological, cell-based systems instead of the other way around. I systems,” adds Hosoi, “but rather will someday function side-by-side see the miniaturization of advanced understanding their physical with traditional machines created diagnostic instruments as an principles and applying those to from inert materials, opening up important trend of the future.” engineering design.” an exciting new opportunity in which biological and inert materials An inextricable part of that trend is As the field of bio-inspired design function together seamlessly to lowering the cost of manufacturing, progresses, a new field of synthetic perform their designed function.” as well as incorporating ways of biology is unfolding alongside analyzing the data, he says. it. “Synthetic biology – such According to Kamm, one example as producing methanol from of this new field, termed bio- On the flip side of consumer something like switch grass – integrated engineering, would empowerment is expert would be a great way to produce be the ability to produce “hyper- empowerment, another trend drugs,” says Dewey, “because it’s organs.” Consider an ultra-sensitive that bioinstrumentation has a big very efficient and reproducible.” nose that “smells,” then feeds the hand in developing. Scientists and information it gathers via a network medical doctors also need smaller, That, in turn, leads to even further of neurons to a conventional CPU more precise instruments to get the development. Professor Kamm that analyzes it (see page 16 to job done. They need to get closer, explains: read more about bio-integrated less invasively, and more easily engineering). if they are to continue necessary “Through recent advances in progress. To this end, Professor So regenerative medicine and Bioinstrumentation has exploited advances in photonics synthetic biology, the possibility Professor Hunter and Dr. to develop game-changing high- of creating multicellular biological Brian Hemond’s micro mass throughput/high-content 3D machines has come onto the spectrometer is representative of imaging bioinstrumentation. horizon. Our vision is that these another upcoming bioengineering MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 6

“Basic biology is important,” says So, “and advanced technology enables the study of something much more basic than you could study before. If you have a better understanding of basic biology, you can make positive contributions to human health, food production, environmental protection, and other important sociological problems that are biological in origin.” Professor Slocum teaches the hands-on Course 2.75, focused on developing bio- medical devices in partnership with Boston-area clinicians.

Biomedical Devices In the biomedical device field, significant improvement as well. Biomolecular Control Systems lowering costs is a concern as well. Advanced surgical devices (such as Biomolecular control systems As high health care costs continue to the flexural laparoscopic grasper may not be officially labeled as rise, people will continue to look for designed by MechE students), “biomedical,” but their potential cheaper, faster, and more accurate for example, can cut down on for controlling cells is quickly health care. surgery and recovery time as well being recognized as a crucial as decrease likelihood of infection element of solving several societal “There’s going to be this large and speed up wound healing problems, including energy and push for people to look for ways time (see Alumni Spotlight on health care. Through biological to cut health care costs, and you’ll Danielle Zurovcik PhD ‘12 on control systems, engineers are see medical devices actually boom page 21), or monitor patient vitals able to use and develop control because of that,” predicts Professor in the comfort of their own home theory to craft modular designs Douglas Hart. “If we can make (exemplified by the Sombus Sleep of biomolecular circuits that can diagnostics more accurate, easier, and Shirt developed by Rest Devices, a be inserted into living cells to cheaper, then why wouldn’t we?” medical device company started by control their behavior. three MechE students in Professor But it’s not just diagnostics that Alex Slocum’s 2.75 course). “The ability to control cell benefit from improved devices. behavior,” explains Associate Quality of life could be an area of On the research side, 3D in vitro Professor Del Vecchio, “has set microfluidic devices, such as those the stage for groundbreaking first developed in the laboratory of applications ranging from “Basic biology is Professor Kamm, are helping our biofuels and biosensing to important, and faculty discover effective ways of molecular computing and preventing the spread of disease targeted drug delivery. We advanced technology – for example, cancer metastasis envision a near future in enables the study of in Professor Kamm’s case – and which programmable cells will something much more enabling engineers to unveil new transform waste into energy methods of drug delivery – for and kill cancer cells in the basic than you could example, through leaky endothelial bloodstream.” study before.” vessels (see Faculty Research, page 14). Biomolecular circuitry is limited by its size and complexity, and for -Professor Peter So > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 7

better performance than can already be achieved in engineered systems.”

With that in mind, she led her research team in an effort to create the most versatile crawler and landed upon the snail – “nature’s ultimate all- terrain vehicle,” as she calls it. Upon further investigation, they found that when a snail crawls, a trail of slime is left behind that allows it to climb Associate Professor Domitilla Del Vecchio conducts research on biomolecular up almost anything. This yield-stress control systems in her lab. fluid is in a solid-like state during the climb, sticking snails to the wall like the most part current research is The answer must include glue, but when they start to shear it focused on establishing design extensive cross-disciplinary with the bottom of their foot, it begins principles to overcome these collaboration to fulfill its to flow like a liquid. “But if you only limitations and enable larger, potential. The best solutions and have one foot and you are sitting on more complex circuits. discoveries utilize and integrate a layer of glue, how do you move?” the many facets of mechanical asked Hosoi. “The answer isn’t Some mechanical engineers engineering: mechanics, obvious.” such as Professor Jean- manufacturing, design and Jacques Slotine are utilizing prototyping, nanotechnology, The Hosoi team discovered that snails’ mathematical principles and computation, robotics, and muscles contract to create a wave of abstract control theory to identify controls. As is often the case compression along the bottom of the the characteristics of a network with mechanical engineering, foot, and invented a way to utilize that would make it more or less it’s the sum of its parts, working this naturally occurring technique to easy to control, and determine together, that will change lives for design a highly advanced crawler. In which nodes and locations in the the better. their design, a non-Newtonian fluid network need to be controlled to reacts with two solid pads on the make it all work. *********************** main body – one consisting of a series of small pads that act as one large The Sum of its Parts Professor Anette Hosoi pad, and a single smaller pad. The “We were scratching the surface Taking their lead from nature, difference in force based on varying of bioengineering for a long MechE faculty members like sizes breaks the symmetry and allows time with something slightly Professor Peko Hosoi and her beyond taxonomy,” says Dewey. team are developing significantly “Obviously some brilliant things improved robotic devices to have already come along, but as tackle modern challenges. With we learn more and more, new a background in physics and opportunities continue to arise. fluid mechanics, Hosoi gets The detective work to get through her inspiration from lower-level that is daunting, but once you get organisms. “There are a couple of there, the question is, ‘how do key things we look for,” she says. you use it?’” “Simplicity, a system grounded in mechanics, and significantly Professor Hosoi’s RoboSnail MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 8

one pad to stick and the other pad called peristalsis. Kim’s resulting deliver drugs superficially into skin, to slide, thus moving the RoboSnail Meshworm is made of an artificial deep into muscle, through the eye forward. muscle constructed from nickel into the retina, through the tempanic and titanium wire that stretches membrane into the middle ear, and The Hosoi team’s invention is and contracts multiple segments even into interstitial fluid. The device currently being used in the oil of its body using heat from a small – which, at 10 to 20 milliseconds industry as a way to move instruments current. Kim and his team developed per dose (anywhere from 105 micro along pipes in “down-hole algorithms to carefully control the liters to 500 micro liters), is speedy environments”; however, RoboSnail wire’s heating and cooling, directing and almost silent – can also utilize its can be useful on any terrain. the worm’s movement. wide bandwidth to vibrate drugs in solid powder form to create a fluidized Professor Sangbae Kim Professor Ian Hunter drug, thus solving the cold chain Assistant Professor Sangbae Kim When Professor Ian Hunter initially problem of delivering refrigerated is also inspired by nature’s ideal had the idea for a needleless jet liquid vaccines to third world solutions. He and his team have been injector that could provide various countries. Receiving the 10 to 100 building a robotic cheetah in their lab dose amounts of differing drugs Joules needed to power a single-dose and recently completed the design at multiple depths, he doubted delivery from a small lithium polymer and prototype of a robotic earthworm. if it would even be possible. But battery, the device is also bidirectional, Like Hosoi, they aren’t interested in years later, the injector, uniquely allowing for the option of sucking unraveling the mystery of intelligence controlled by a Lorentz-force actuator, biomaterials out of the body – but rather in understanding the is an elegant and easy option for including DNA and proteins. The mobility of accomplished animals otherwise difficult drug delivery. injector uses a 32-bit microcontroller and borrowing their successful Needleless injection isn’t a new idea, for controlling its operation and a characteristics to create advanced but Hunter’s creativity, combined digital nonlinear feedback control mobility in robots. system running at up to 100,000 Professor Hunter’s needleless injector (see page 30) samples per second. The newest “Our core motivation is to understand version of Hunter’s injector includes how biological systems are designed,” a double Halbach magnet array says Kim. “People make a lot of designed by recent PhD graduate Dr. assumptions about what animals Brian Ruddy. It is expected to deliver a are designed and optimized for. dose of drugs with a precision of less We’re fascinated by that – people than one microliter. think it’s the ideal design, but we’re not sure. Our research is centered Professor Peter So around the idea of testing and proving The question of what differentiates those hypotheses, and using those with the vision and expertise of his alternate paths of diseases, or why one findings to form the basis for a new team – Dr. Cathy Hogan, Dr. Andrew type of biomaterial more successfully perspective.” Taberner, and recent PhD graduates regenerates tissue than another Dr. Brian Hemond and Dr. Adam is directed by many cellular and The team’s newest perspective came Wahab – has hoisted it to a new molecular factors that are very difficult from analyzing a simple earthworm. level. The team is the first to use a to decipher. Similar to the Robosnail’s wave of lab-made Lorentz-force actuator to contractions, the earthworm also control velocity, volume, and pressure Professor Peter So’s team is getting moves forward by squeezing and to deliver drugs at a rate equivalent to the answers by mapping tissue stretching its muscles, a mechanism to the speed of sound in air. It can morphological structures and biochemical organizations of small > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 9

animal organs with subcellular The scanner can even measure canal resolution. The high-throughput/ Mechanical engineers wall elasticity by varying the pressure high-content 3D imaging are applying inside the membrane and recording bioinstrumentation they biological principles the results. An on-site laptop developed as a result of this focus computer processes all the data and is based on high-speed multi- to mechanical design sends it directly to the manufacturer. photon microscopy that enables and, conversely, them to study tissue structures “Ears are very small and don’t have that span five orders of magnitude mechanical texture to them, so you can’t use in scale. engineering principles stereoscopic imaging to get images to the understanding of them, nor structured light systems Instead of exciting fluorescence because of skin translucency,” using a single blue photon, So’s of biology. explains Hart. “People have tried team uses a lower-energy infrared interferometry and other similar light to ensure that the probability engines, one of Hart’s students ran ideas, but that’s too sensitive and of photointeraction is limited to a into a problem: He couldn’t get the expensive. What we have designed volume on the order of one femtoliter. oil thickness out of the equations. is one of a kind, utilizing color Outside of this spot, the photon flux is Instead of getting frustrated, Hart took absorption ratios to determine lower and there is no excitation, thus advantage of the problem. “We started distance.” providing unique 3D resolution. realizing that if we could measure the thickness of the liquid that we could Because of the scanner’s incredible Professor Douglas Hart also get a 3D image of it,” says Hart. accuracy, not only can it notably Professor Douglas Hart’s development improve patient comfort and hearing of the first 3D ear canal scanner for Currently the only 3D ear canal aid quality, but it also significantly making perfect-fit hearing aids was scanner available, the portable Lantos cuts down on manufacturing cost actually the result of a happy accident Scanner provides safe, comfortable by eliminating the need to remake in an auto shop. While measuring and fast mapping of the ear canal hearing aids that weren’t fitted oil-film thickness and temperature for perfect hearing aid fits, as well correctly the first time. in seals on the cylinder wall of as custom ear plugs and internal headphones. Professor Alexander Slocum Professor Alexander Slocum has been The soft membrane at the end of the guiding senior undergraduates as scanner has a visible odoscope tip well as graduate students interested that is guided deep into the ear canal in biomedical device design since by a video feed. Once inserted the 2004, when he founded Course 2.75 membrane is filled with a water-based upon the famous MIT credo mens et optical dye, expanding the membrane manus (“mind and hand”). The 14- until it conforms perfectly to the week course is focused on biomedical patient’s unique inner ear. Using device design projects that match a dual wave-length algorithm, the teams of students with Boston-area scanner takes thousands of 2D digital clinicians. Each team of three to five images as it exits the ear and stitches students works on a real problem, them together in real time to create a from brainstorming and designing a highly accurate 3D image of the ear. Post-doc Christopher Rowland does work in proof-of-concept device, to building the So Bioinstrumentation Lab. and testing a prototype – all along MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 10

the way constantly challenged by Professor Domitilla Del Vecchio a biological circuit network need to be Slocum to identify risks and viable The term “network” has become a controlled to gain control of the entire countermeasures to the design and its standard metaphor for describing network. Now that biological models production. the system of arteries and synapases are precise enough to be controlled, and other areas of flow and synergy says Slotine, we can begin to develop One look at the list of devices and in the body, but there’s another, less circuit diagrams and dynamical start-up companies that have spun common image that illustrates the systems that might be able to do the off from the work done by 2.75 connectivity perhaps even better: job of controlling the large, nonlinear, students, and it’s easy to see that circuitry. As with electrical circuits, and complex networks that exist in Slocum’s hands-on approach to you get effects similar to impedance biology. the course works. For example, called “retroactivity,” says Professor Robopsy, a robotic device to assist Domitilla Del Vecchio, who was one of radiologists during percutaneous the first to apply control theory ideas tumor biopsies, won the 2007 $100K to biomolecular design systems that Entrepreneurship Competition and are impervious to such impedance. the first-place award at the 2008 ASME Innovation Showcase. In 2011, “The main problem is how one can the Somnus™ Sleep Shirt, which use the specific mechanism you have monitors patient respiration at home, in biological systems to modify or won a prize at the prestigious Three- create new control techniques that are in-Five Competition at the Design of useful in this new domain,” says Del His recent work with colleagues points Medical Devices Conference. Upon Vecchio. toward the origin and characteristics graduation, the shirt’s creators formed of a network that would allow for easy Rest Devices (www.restdevices.com) Del Vecchio’s team is currently control. He has discovered that there to commercialize their technology focused on the development of are specific characteristics that make and secured $500,000 in angel biomolecular feedback circuits a biological network easy or difficult financing. Following both a clinical that are robust to retroactivity and to control, and that more connections and a consumer path, they are function like operational amplifiers in equate to greater control of the simultaneously developing the electronics. “Biological components network as a whole. Somnus sleep monitoring shirt as are already there,” says Del Vecchio, an alternative to in-hospital sleep “so our focus is on making the Although his work is very theoretical studies while preparing to launch ensemble of these parts suitable at this stage, Slotine suspects that an infant monitoring onesie. Several for modular design, which will such fundamental knowledge about other devices from the class have been enable the creation of complex new how to control biological networks licensed and are expected to be in functionalities.” could be very useful in the future for production soon. drug delivery and synthetic biology. Professor Jean-Jacques Slotine Slocum’s former TA for the class, Dr. One area of Professor Jean-Jacques Nevan Hanumara, is now a post-doc Slotine’s focus is the theory of in his lab, working to expand the biological control systems. He’s course and create an industry outreach researching ways to control and program that gets more of the course’s exploit synchronization mechanisms products into production. in neurons and cells, and utilizing mathematical principles to answer the question of which nodes and locales in > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 11

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Ioannis V. Yannas A Lifetime of Biomaterials Engineering Achievement by Alissa Mallinson

Weaving together their collective expertise the process of developing artificial skin to in engineered polymers and biology, the other areas of medicine as well, such as two teamed up to create the first artificial tissue, cartilage, bone, and nerve regrowth. skin. Harvard Medical School Professor Myron But getting there wasn’t easy. The Spector, a close collaborator of Yannas skin’s delicate intricacies were difficult for more than 20 years and an expert to replicate, and the recipe for success in biomaterials and tissue engineering, was incredibly specific. A patient’s real says, “In addition to resulting in a highly skin couldn’t regenerate if the artificial successful treatment for a broad spectrum In 1969, Professor Ioannis V. skin’s pores weren’t between 20 and 120 of skin injuries and diseases, which alone Yannas was an expert on fibers millionths of a meter, for example. It would have been a life’s achievement, the and polymers at MIT when Dr. John also had to naturally degrade in a specific research that Yanni has conducted over F. Burke approached him with a request time frame – too long and it would block the past three decades in developing a for help. A surgeon, Burke had made growth of new skin; too short and the collagen-based regeneration template has significant strides in burn treatment but new skin wouldn’t have enough time to led to many significant advancements. He was still missing a piece of the puzzle. fully regrow. has proved the validity of certain principles guiding regeneration and has provided a “He wanted something to keep the As it turned out, Yannas’s skin did groundbreaking model for medical device bacteria out,” said Yannas, “and keep the more than just block infection and development and what is now termed moisture in.” retain moisture – it actually helped ‘translational research.’” Human skin and pig skin, which to regenerate the skin. The trick was were often used in burn treatments, adding a synthetic layer of silicone on Yannas’s regeneration principles and the were commonly rejected by the body’s top of a layer of organic “scaffolding” – a collagen scaffolding he invented have immune system, and the immune combination of molecular material from spawned at least four start-ups founded by suppressants given to patients left cow tendons and shark cartilage. The prior students, postdoctoral fellows, and them vulnerable to infection. The other synthetic layer protects the skin from residents, with products to treat defects obstacle was dehydration. No one had bacteria and infection and keeps the in the meniscus of the knee, articular yet found a way of building skin that moisture in, while the organic layer acts cartilage, bone, and the eye. as a cornerstone on which new healthy could absorb and maintain moisture. Professor Ioannis V. Yannas is a member of the National skin cells can grow. With a bachelor’s degree in chemistry Academy of Sciences (Institute of Medicine) and the from Harvard College, a master’s degree The artificial skin was a lifesaver for Association for the Advancement of Science, a founding in chemical engineering from MIT, many patients – not just those fighting fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological a second master’s degree in physical significant burns, but those with chronic Engineering, and a charter member of the Biomedical chemistry from Princeton University, skin problems too, such as diabetics who Engineering Society, among others. He has won and a PhD in physical chemistry from have wounds that won’t heal due to poor numerous awards, including the Doolittle Award of the Princeton, Yannas was a good choice to circulation. American Chemical Society and the Clemson Award for Applied Science and Engineering from the Society of help Burke with his mission. Since then Yannas has built on his Biomaterials. regenerative breakthroughs, applying some of the principles he discovered in MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 12

A Customizable Curriculum The 2-A Flexible Degree Program Offers In-Depth Undergraduate Study

by Alissa Mallinson

As is often the case, the MIT interest in mechanical engineering Department of Mechanical more broadly. “This program Engineering is leading the The Mechanical Engineering core way. This time, it’s in the area shows that you requirements for both degree of undergraduate education, programs are exactly the same in the can provide an with the newly revamped sophomore year; then changes start extrememly flexible degree program 2-A. to occur in the junior year, when rigorous One of the first mechanical Course 2 students are required to take engineering programs in the four specific courses, but Course 2-A engineering world to offer a customizable students only two, allowing them to education while curriculum alongside a rigorous begin honing in on an area of focus still adapting core in mechanical engineering and for their remaining third-year credits. the ability to concentrate in one of From there, Course 2-A students are to modern several modern engineering areas, given the flexibility to take 6 12-credit engineering the Department’s 2-A program is upper-level courses in a concentration garnering a lot of attention in the US area they choose in conjunction with themes.” and around the world. the Course 2-A advisor. -Professor Hosoi “The key is hitting the right balance Students love the choice, especially between rigor and flexibility,” says those who go into it with a very Undergraduate Education Officer targeted career plan – they know they Professor Anette “Peko” Hosoi. “Once want to go into the energy or robotics 2-A became accredited in 2002, field when they graduate, for example. students knew they’d be getting the They can focus in on what they’re same engineering rigor they would most interested in, which is often get in Course 2, as well as the freedom difficult to do in a traditional accredited to focus on topics that are specifically engineering program. interesting to them, like energy or Choices, Choices robotics or manufacturing. So I think Based on the numbers, what are it’s that particular combination that’s students choosing? With more than appealing to the students.” 20% of 2-A students concentrating in robotics, the area of Control, Since 2002, enrollment in the program Instrumentation, & Robotics is has increased 10-fold to the point currently the clear winner. where 45% of mechanical engineering majors are currently enrolled in 2-A. However, Management and Product Meanwhile, Course 2 enrollment Development aren’t far behind, with remains steady, indicating a growing 15% to 20% of students focused in > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 13

Professor Youcef-Toumi directs students in one of MechE’s robotics courses, Course 2.12 Introduction to Robotics. each of those areas. Data also shows if someone is interested in robotics, for that Manufacturing, Biomedical, example, they have very little space in Industrial Design, Entrepreneurship, and their schedule to squeeze the electives Transportation are all on students’ radar. in. But now students can put together a substantial group of classes that allows To make it even easier to concentrate on “The key is them to focus on their field of interest. a particular mechanical engineering area, Robotics is a great example because, hitting the right this year the program has implemented in addition to the Course 2 electives, even more flexibility. Instead of offering balance between they can also take upper-level classes in 6 12-credit core courses, students can Course 6 (Electrical Engineering and rigor and now build a core from 13 different Computer Science). flexibility.” options, three of which are traditional 12-credit courses, and 10 of which are “It’s a very important program,” says 6-credit course modules. Hosoi, “because it shows that you can provide an extremely rigorous accredited But are they getting a less thorough engineering education while still adapting understanding of the material? to the modern themes that are emerging No, says Hosoi. “I think the students in real engineering jobs.” in 2-A are actually getting a more in- depth education,” she says. “Normally MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 14

Faculty Research: Visualizing Sneaky Tumor Cells 3D in Vitro Microfluidic Devices Allow Never-Before-Seen Tumor Cell Movement by Alissa Mallinson

Not many people have watched as a single tumor cell sneaks its way through a blood vessel wall and out the other side.

But Roger Kamm, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, and his doctoral student Ioannis Zervantonakis are two of the few who have. They are studying the mechanics of metastasis, the process of cancer cell migration from one location in the body to another and the cause of more than 90% of cancer deaths.

Professor Kamm has studied several aspects of metastasis over a period of several years using a 3D this process in real time and be that enables 3D culture, Kamm and in vitro microfluidic device developed able to characterize transport Zervantonakis studied tumor cell in his lab, including a recent study across the endothelial barrier,” says intravasation as no one has ever done on the effect of flow on tumor cell Zervantonakis. “Previous designs in before. migration. This time, the team used our group allowed for endothelial cell This unprecedented ability to visualize a device designed and developed and tumor cell cultures, but because intravasation confirmed several by Zervantonakis to look at the intravasation is so rare — only about theories about the intricate mechanics importance of signaling between 5% of cells achieve it — it was hard to taking place – which they published tumor cells and macrophages, a type capture it in the two to four regions we this year in the journal Proceedings of of white blood cell with a versatile role had. So I designed a new device that the National Academy of Sciences.* in the immune system. They found would allow us to observe at least 200 that when macrophages are absent, cells, using 40 regions of observation.” First, Kamm and Zervantonakis it is extremely rare for tumor cells to confirmed the importance of Zervantonakis also included in migrate across the cell layer that lines the presence of bacteria-fighting his design the ability to measure the blood vessels (a process called macrophages. Because a lonely few permeability while quantifying tumor intravasation), but, conversely, when tumor cells can cross through the cell invasion by using fluorescently they are present, the rate of entry endothelium even without the help labeled proteins and incorporating increases significantly. of macrophages, the duo determined a y-junction to balance the fluid that their presence wasn’t essential; “It’s very exciting to have developed flow. Combined with the significant but they identified a strong positive one of the first systems to image increase in number of regions and correlation. the integration of the gel matrix > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 15

Second, they detected cell-to-cell migration process. Being limited to live communication between both invasive cell models only, Condeelis contacted tumor cells and normally protective Kamm after hearing news of his 3D in macrophages, and, subsequently, vitro microfluidic assay, which allows between traitor macrophages and the not only imaging of the cell movement Student Snapshots blood vessel. The result is increased but also the ability to consequently leakiness of the vessels and tumor cells infer this crucial element of signaling that can enter them. between cells, something that no one had been able to incorporate into Additional experiments – which their in vitro assays. Unlike other involved replacing macrophages with systems, Kamm and Zervantonakis’s a tumor necrosis factor called TNF-α, device enables them to visualize the which is known to increase vessel cells at very precise locations within leakiness – helped to determine the the system, even allowing them to mechanisms more specifically and discover that macrophages do not confirm a causal relationship. By need to be in physical contact with the performing these control experiments, tumor cells but simply close enough to they determined that macrophages communicate with them. alone were instrumental in increasing the blood vessel diffusive permeability “This is good news not only for the and were at least causal in an increase fundamental understanding of how in the migration of the tumor cells, if metastasis occurs, but also because not the primary trigger. intact endothelial vessels block intravasation,” says Zervantonakis. “Experiments that included “Although leaky vessels can be a macrophages alone and then only positive thing when you want to TNF-α – a factor that macrophages distribute cancer-fighting drugs, secrete – both resulted in increased tumor cells may utilize these same intravasation,” says Zervantonakis. leaky vessels to enter the blood stream “Because we have this method of and travel to another part of the measuring permeability in real time, body. Additional studies are needed we saw over the course of eight hours to investigate ways to target the role that the endothelium becomes leaky. macrophages have in making blood We proved that when we make the vessels leaky.” endothelium leaky, more intravasation occurs. When we decrease the *I.K. Zervantonakis, S. K. Alford- leakiness by blocking antibodies, less Hughes, J. L. Charest, F. B. Gertler, J. intravasation occurs.” C. Condeelis and R. D. Kamm (2012). “Three-dimensional microfluidic Kamm and Zervantonakis’s work tumor-vascular interface model: Tumor provided support for the theory of John cell intravasation and endothelial S. Condeelis, from the Albert Einstein barrier function.” PNAS, 109 (34), Medical Center in New York, whose 13515-13520]. Read the published paper studies on mice had suggested that here: http://bit.ly/UkPzTk macrophages were important in this MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 16

Faculty Research: Professor Harry Asada Engineering Light-Activated Muscles by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

Many robotic designs take nature Professor Roger Kamm to develop as their muse: sticking to walls like the new approach. In deciding which geckos, swimming through water bodily tissue to use in their robotic like tuna, sprinting across terrain like design, the researchers set upon cheetahs. skeletal muscle – a stronger, more powerful tissue than cardiac or smooth or myoblasts, genetically modifying Now, scientists at MIT and the muscle. But unlike cardiac tissue, them to express a light-activated University of Pennsylvania are taking which beats involuntarily, skeletal protein. The group fused myoblasts more than inspiration from nature – muscles – those involved in running, into long muscle fibers, then shone they’re taking ingredients. The group walking, and other physical motions – 20-millisecond pulses of blue light has genetically engineered muscle need external stimuli to flex. into the dish. They found that the cells to flex in response to light, and is genetically altered fibers responded in using the light-sensitive tissue to build Normally, neurons act to excite spatially specific ways: Small beams highly articulated robots. This “bio- muscles, sending electrical impulses of light shone on just one fiber integrated” approach, as they call it, that cause a muscle to contract. In caused only that fiber to contract, may one day enable robotic animals to the lab, researchers have employed while larger beams covering multiple move with the strength and flexibility electrodes to stimulate muscle fibers fibers stimulated all those fibers to of their living counterparts. with small amounts of current. But contract. Asada says such a technique, while Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of effective, is unwieldy. Moreover, he A light workout Engineering in MIT’s Department says, electrodes, along with their The group is the first to successfully of Mechanical Engineering, says power supply, would likely bog down a stimulate skeletal muscle using light, the group’s design effectively blurs small robot. providing a new “wireless” way to the boundary between nature and control muscles. Going a step further, Instead, Asada and his colleagues machines. Asada grew muscle fibers with a looked to a relatively new field called mixture of hydrogel to form a 3D “With bio-inspired designs, biology is optogenetics, invented in 2005 by muscle tissue, and again stimulated a metaphor, and robotics is the tool to MIT’s Ed Boyden and Karl Deisseroth the tissue with light – finding that make it happen,” says Asada, who is from Stanford University, who the 3D muscle responded in much a co-author on the paper. “With bio- genetically modified neurons to the same way as individual muscle integrated designs, biology provides respond to short laser pulses. Since fibers, bending and twisting in areas the materials, not just the metaphor. then, researchers have used the exposed to beams of light. This is a new direction we’re pushing technique to stimulate cardiac cells in biorobotics.” to twitch. The researchers tested the strength of Seeing the light the engineered tissue using a small Asada’s team looked for ways to do Asada and MIT postdoc Mahmut micromechanical chip – designed the same with skeletal muscle cells. Selman Sakar collaborated with by Christopher Chen at UPenn – The researchers cultured such cells, (continued on page 18...)

Find out more > Read the full MIT News article: http://bit.ly/S0pT1y > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 17

Faculty Research: Professor Rohit Karnik In a New Microchip, Cells Separate by Rolling Away by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

Associate Professor Rohit Karnik in his lab. Karnik’s new microfluidic device isolates target cells (in pink) from the rest of the flow by getting them to stick weakly to the device’s ridges then roll through trenches and into a collection chamber.

Cell rolling is a common mechanism cell-rolling mechanism. The device needing any kind of [additional] cells use to navigate through the body. takes in mixtures of cells, which instrument.” During inflammation, for example, flow through tiny channels coated While current cell-sorting technologies the endothelial cells that line blood with sticky molecules. Cells with separate large batches of cells quickly vessels present certain molecules that specific receptors bind weakly to these and efficiently, they have several attract white blood cells just enough molecules, rolling away from the rest limitations. Fluorescence-activated to divert them from the rest of the of the flow and out into a separate cell sorting, a widely used technique, vessel’s cellular traffic. White blood receptacle. requires lasers and voltage to sort cells then roll along the vessel wall, The cell sorters, about the size of cells based on their electric charge – a slowing down to help in the healing of postage stamps, may be fabricated and complex system requiring multiple inflamed areas. stacked one on top of another to sift parts. Researchers have also used Researchers at MIT and Brigham out many cells at once – an advantage fluorescent markers and magnetic and Women’s Hospital – including for scientists who want to isolate large beads that bind to desired cells, MIT Professor Rohit Karnik, postdoc quantities of cells quickly. making them easy to spot and sift out. Sung Young Choi of MIT, and Jeffrey However, once collected, the cells need “We’re working on a disposable device Karp, Associate Professor at Harvard to be separated from the beads and where you wouldn’t even need a Medical School and co-director of the markers – an added step that risks syringe pump to drive the separation,” Center for Regenerative Therapeutics modifying the samples. says Rohit Karnik, Associate Professor at Brigham and Women’s – have now of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Going with the flow designed a cell-sorting microchip “You could potentially buy a $5 or $10 Karnik’s team designed a compact that takes advantage of this natural kit and get the cells sorted without cell sorter that requires no additional

Find out more > Read the full MIT News article: http://bit.ly/w0qWvg MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 18

(...Asada, continued from page 16) (...Karnik, continued from page 17) that contains multiple wells, each parts or steps. In concert with MIT’s experiments, the team successfully housing two flexible posts. The group Robert Langer and others, the team recovered the cells they intended to sift attached muscle strips to each post, built upon their 2007 work in which out with 96 percent purity. then stimulated the tissue with light. they first came up with the sorting-by- As the muscle contracts, it pulls the rolling principle. The initial proof-of- Karnik says the device may be posts inward; because the stiffness principle design was relatively simple: replicated and stacked to sort large of each post is known, the group can Cells were injected into a single inlet, batches of cells at relatively low cost. calculate the muscle’s force using which gave way to a large chamber He and his colleagues are hoping to each post’s bending angle. coated on one side with sticky, roll- apply the device to sort other blood inducing molecules. The incoming cells, as well as certain types of cancer The light-sensitive muscle tissue cells flowed through the chamber; cells for diagnostic applications and exhibits a wide range of motions, the cells that bound to the molecules stem cells for therapeutic applications. which may enable highly articulated, rolled to one side, then out to a In the future, Karnik envisions tailor- flexible robots. One potential robotic collection chamber. made cell rolling, designing molecules device may involve endoscopy, and surfaces that weakly adhere to any a procedure in which a camera However, the researchers found that desired type of cell. is threaded through the body to in order to allow target cells to first illuminate tissue or organs. Asada settle on the chamber’s surface, long “It’s really the ability to design says a robot made of light-sensitive channels were required, which would molecules to separate cells of interest muscle may be small and nimble make the device too large. Instead, that will be powerful,” Karnik says. enough to navigate tight spaces – Choi came up with a surface pattern “There’s no reason to believe it cannot even within the body’s vasculature. that causes cells to circulate within the be done, because nature has already chamber. The pattern comprises 10 done it.” “We can put 10 degrees of freedom parallel channels with 50 ridges and in a limited space, less than one Read the published paper here: http://rsc. trenches, each ridge about 40 microns millimeter,” Asada says. “There’s no li/UkPpvd high. The researchers coated the actuator that can do that kind of job ridges with P-selectin, a well-known right now.” molecule that promotes cell rolling. Another possible use may be in drug They then injected two kinds of screening for motor-related diseases. leukemia cells: one with receptors for Scientists may grow light-sensitive P-selectin, the other without. muscle strips in multiple wells, They found that once injected, and monitor their reaction – and the cells entered the chamber and the force of their contractions – in bounced across the top of the ridges, response to various drugs. exiting the chip through an outlet. Read the published paper here: http:// The cells with P-selectin receptors rsc.li/UbM1Ak were “caught” by the sticky molecule and flipped into trenches that led to a separate receptacle. Through their > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 19

Alumni Spotlight Davide Marini, PhD ‘03; CEO and Cofounder, Firefly BioWorks

What was missing in the of individually encoded hydrogel biomedical market that inspired microparticles that can be easily bio- you to cofound Firefly? functionalized by embedding DNA, antibodies or other biologically Many of the technologies currently relevant molecules within their available to life sciences researchers matrix. We’ve designed our particles require dedicated instrumentation to be mixed with a biological sample and consumables. As a consequence, to reveal the presence of specific scientists typically develop assays that biomarkers of interest. Our first their porosity is precisely tuned to are only usable on the platform on product, FirePlex miRSelect™, is size-exclude certain species from the which they were designed. When I saw designed to detect microRNAs, particle interior. Daniel Pregibon (who at the time was an important class of biomarkers finishing his PhD in the Department Where did the idea come from? that regulate gene expression of Chemical Engineering, under and has shown great potential for The idea came from a failed the supervision of Professor Patrick cancer diagnostics. The particles experiment. The inventor, Daniel Doyle) present the technology he had Pregibon, was trying to develop a invented at a conference sponsored new method for coating a surface by the Deshpande Center, I was with a structured hyrodgel pattern. A immediately captured by the elegance change he made to the setting allowed of the idea: a very flexible method for individual patterns to float away after rapid micro-fabrication of hydrogel polymerization. After noticing this microparticles for biological analysis. unexpected behavior and talking to his We started Firefly BioWorks with a advisor Professor Doyle, they realized desire to offer scientists a completely they had created an entirely novel open, flexible method for developing in miRSelect™ are designed to be combination of UV photolithography biological assays. The full potential read on standard flow cytometers, and microfluidics – a powerful new of our technology became apparent so users don’t need to purchase method for microfabrication. after talking with several instrument additional equipment to use our How does your optical liquid manufacturers. It became clear that products. These hydrogel particles stamping fill the void in the our products had the power to shift are more sensitive than existing market? the complexity from the instrument microarrays and solid polystyrene to the consumable, allowing existing beads, because they are made of Existing solutions for miRNA equipment to perform more a porous, flexible hydrogel that detection typically fall within two sophisticated tasks than those for mimics aqueous conditions. categories: either high-throughput/ which it was designed. Firefly particles allow for target low-multiplexing, or high- multiplexing/low-throughput. But Please describe your product molecules to diffuse into a 3D scaffold, increasing the number according to several opinion polls suite. of target molecules that bind and among scientists, there is a strong Our core technology, Optical Liquid therefore producing a more intense need for solutions allowing them to Stamping, allows rapid production fluorescence signal. Furthermore, profile “100 targets over 100 samples MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 20

in the same day.” Our technology was immersed in the molecular structure imagine who I would be without designed to address exactly this need. of the fibers clotting the brain of this experience. The Institute offers Additionally, each one of our products Alzheimer’s patients. The years an environment that I have never is customized for a specific user. All I spent at MIT were the most found anywhere else. When I make you need to do is type the names of exhilarating of my professional life. important decisions, I always bring to the miRNAs you wish to profile on Having the opportunity to interact mind the most extraordinary people our web site, and we will ship you with many different departments I met here and how they would think a product built specifically for your was an extraordinary and invaluable in front of the same challenge. I also purpose. We have also just launched experience. I particularly enjoyed remind myself of the words of Teresa a web-based method for automated the interaction with the biology of Avila, a 16th-century Spanish nun: product customization, based on department. It is through this “Humility is the bread that must be relevance of microRNA targets as interaction that I became captivated eaten at every meal.” published in the scientific literature. by the complexity of living systems, As a startup, we can make decisions and by ion channels in particular – the very rapidly and integrate a wide biological equivalent of transistors. spectrum of technologies into our This window into the world of biology production work flow. kindled my passion for developing products designed to make the life of What are you most proud of? scientists easier. Our team. This is by far the most MIT’s Department of Mechanical important ingredient in a startup Engineering has historically attracted company. It is so important that very entrepreneurial, hands- investors typically assume the on students. It was through my technology won’t work, but that if interaction with these friends that I the team is driven and resourceful came to appreciate the importance enough, they will find their way out. of applying theoretical principles to We have established a culture of trust- building useful products. In Italy, based open conflict, where criticism where I grew up, the emphasis is is encouraged. We also do not tolerate more on learning the theory and arrogance, as it is a big obstacle to proving theorems. At MIT I learned absorbing new information. We greatly the beauty of applying first principles value passion and admire people that to creating real products. In a sense, love excellence for its own sake. I re-discovered what my ancestors How did your PhD work in enjoyed during the Renaissance in MechE inspire you to start Florence, where small workshops of Firefly? talented artists produced remarkable My PhD adviser, Professor Roger works of art and developed their skills Kamm, allowed me the freedom to absolute excellence. to explore uncharted territory. This How has your time at MIT was a very precious opportunity. influenced your professional I was working on the mechanical decision-making? properties of a biomaterial, and MIT has shaped my thinking in eventually found myself deeply such a deep way that I cannot even > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 21

Alumni Spotlight Danielle Zurovcik (SM ’07, PhD ‘11); CEO and Founder, WiCare

By Alissa Mallinson

According to Zurovcik, current NPWT “Current dressings on the market have devices cost $100 a day to rent and 70 freedom of application, meaning they watts of power. For a typical 6-week allow for the possibility of air leaks,” therapy timeframe, that comes to more she says. “So application method is than $4,000. But how could a device very important to address even before with such simple mechanics be so you create a design. If you have the expensive? freedom to apply it incorrectly, the design could be rendered useless.” “If you look at it from a fundamental physics-based perspective, you have to When she arrived in Rwanda to question why it costs so much to apply conduct clinical trials, Zurovcik was a low-vacuum pressure to a wound,” able to visualize problems and adjust says Zurovcik. “The answer is based the device immediately. on the fact that you’re putting a planar Danielle Zurovcik (SM ‘07, “I was hand making all my dressing system on contoured skin, causing PhD ‘11) conducted her designs at night and applying them in many wrinkles and bends to develop doctoral research on a high- the field the next day, visualizing any that create air leaks. As a result, the tech medical device, but in her issues and promptly using the data device is continuously sucking in free time, she followed her I gathered that day to make a better air, up to 13 liters per minute, and passion for a low-tech wound one that very night, while staying the patient is paying for the device therapy device that led her to start a within the limits of our protocol,” she to constantly overcome its own global medical device company called explains. When she returned to MIT inefficiencies.” WiCare. that fall, she was able to finalize her Negative pressure wound therapy As part of her master’s degree research best design, which in part consisted (NPWT) is a relatively new technique in the MIT Department of Mechanical of a new way of making wound that applies a vacuum pressure to an Engineering, Zurovcik was one of dressings from scratch without using open wound. It stresses the cells and the first to identify the significance of electricity. She invented a new dressing causes them to divide, brings blood the air leak – not only its relationship material – a new polymer mixture to the area, removes infectious fluids, to NPWT success but also to the that eliminates the necessity of a and provides a healthier healing unnecessary amount of energy needed fixed shape and conforms to the skin, environment. It’s been shown to to power it. After years of research, utilizing its natural properties to create significantly decrease healing time experience, and experimentation, she a stronger bond. Just as importantly, from months to just weeks. It prevents understood that the most important she also invented a new application infections and requires less care and elements of maintaining an airtight method that eliminates the risk of materials than traditional wound seal were material and, even more bridges over the skin contours and therapy, decreasing dressing changes importantly, application method. But if subsequent air leaks. you can overcome these obstacles, she from once a day to once every three to Having found the perfect recipe says, you can decrease power usage five days and requiring less nursing of airtight application method from 70 watts to 20 microwatts. support as a consequence. and effective, inexpensive design, Zurovcik did exactly that. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 22

Faculty Spotlight: C. Forbes Dewey A Lifetime of Bioengineering Achievement

By Alissa Mallinson

(...Zurovcik, continued from page 21)

Professor of Mechanical Engineering “But then I got to thinking about blood Zurovcik, who also has a minor in and Biological Engineering C. flow, as exemplified by the flow past an business from the MIT Sloan School Forbes Dewey Jr. first came to atherosclerotic artery constriction, and of Management, started WiCare as a MIT’s Department of Mechanical the question of where the sound comes means of distributing her product to Engineering in 1968 as an associate from was a very interesting physics emerging markets. She plans to first professor, bringing with him a BS in problem to me,” he recalls. “You have prove the device in the US market – mechanical engineering from Yale blood flow through a restricted artery, which, at $2 billion, still only treats a University, an MS in mechanical and you should be able to at least get a fraction of patients who could benefit engineering from Stanford University, theory for what that looks like and try from NPWT – but a key element of and a PhD in aeronautics from to understand where the sounds come her design is a price point that fits California Institute of Technology. from.” emerging markets. Between his PhD at Caltech and his position at MIT, he did a five-year He eventually transitioned from “My goal with WiCare is to design stint at the University of Colorado fluid-mechanical problems to the global medical devices that are and the Joint Institute for Laboratory cells themselves in order to study affordable for the bottom of the Astrophysics in Boulder, where he atherosclerosis. At branch points, pyramid but are just as effective struggled to tame unstable plasmas arteries are more prone to developing as those created for the top of the in the hopes of achieving controlled disease. Dewey knew it was a function pyramid,” says Zurovcik. fusion. of their geometry and blood flow, and suspected that the underlying “Back in 1968,” remembers Dewey, mechanics of the problem were related. “there were a few very forward- But he quickly realized that external looking faculty members here at MIT, engineering studies couldn’t get to the including Professor Ascher Shapiro, answers he was seeking, because the key who believed that bioengineering was phenomena were all biological in nature, a great new field that was going to and that he’d have to find a way to get a integrate biology, chemistry, physics, closer look. and engineering, and transition into something miraculous. I thought that Partners in Discovery was very interesting.” Dewey partnered with Dr. Michael Gimbrone, a pathologist at Brigham and With a background in fluid mechanics, Women’s Hospital who had developed Dewey was a perfect fit for this great new techniques for growing cells in new field. The number of engineers culture. Together they designed a studying biomedical fluid mechanics laboratory apparatus that would first at the time was miniscule, and many grow the cells, then subject them to very challenging problems were being fluid flow, mimicking what they would discussed. “I said to myself, ‘I’m an experience in the artery. The apparatus engineer, this is biology. How can I was modeled after a cone-and-plate make a difference?’ viscometer, well known to the fluid > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 23

that were subjected to disturbed flow cell membrane is a very thin layer Faculty Spotlight: C. Forbes Dewey [flow that oscillated and had a low of gooey material about 0.5 microns A Lifetime of Bioengineering Achievement magnitude] became compromised, thick called the glycocalyx. shedding from the surface and leaking at the joints between the “All of a sudden, that layer became all cells. Dewey and Gimbrone realized important to me,” says Dewey. “Now that they were likely visualizing you had your mechanism for getting the very same phenomena that the force from the fluid flow to the occurred in vivo in the very regions inside of the cell.” With this missing of bifurcations subjected to disturbed piece of the puzzle finally in place, flow. Dewey’s research team was the first to directly measure the mechanical In 1988, Dewey ran into a problem. stiffness of glycocalyx in an ongoing mechanics field for producing a “Using various methods, we went and as-yet unpublished experiment constant shear force over a large looking for the actual mechanism using super-resolution microscopy surface area. This allowed large that couples the fluid force to the cell, and a quantum dot florescence samples of cells to be exposed to and came up with a blank,” he says. technique. shear and make them available to He felt that early theories explaining biological assays. that shear stress acted directly on “It all made perfect sense,” says the cell membrane were inadequate. Dewey, “and for the first time it The cone-plate apparatus allowed How could a “fluid membrane” was possible to visualize how the Dewey and Gimbrone to make the resist a continual force without shear stress actually acted on the first controlledin vitro laboratory being totally distorted, he thought? glycocalyx and its support structure, measurements of the effects of Frustrated, he turned his attention which reached completely through fluid flow on vascular endothelial to other interesting problems, the cell membrane and attached to cells. Today there are a number of becoming heavily involved in the the cytoskeleton. It was also clear different apparatuses to perform development of medical imaging that if the glycocalyx was missing, such experiments, and the response standards, such as the DICOM the effects of fluid shear stress on of cells to fluid shear stress is studied standard, as well as nonlinear optics. the cells would be compromised. in hundreds of laboratories around He and Lon Hocker developed The potential for understanding how the world, but at the time, it was a novel devices for broadly tunable fluid flow and cell biology worked groundbreaking invention. wavelength laser systems and, with together to modulate arterial disease the help of MechE Professor Roger seems at hand.” Now with the ability to visualize Kamm, pollution device detection blood flow, Dewey and Gimbrone systems based on resonant opto- Just as he did in earlier years, began to look closely at the cell acoustic spectroscopy. Dewey is simultaneously working mechanics. They were able to look on data collection and analysis as at the interior of the cells to see There and Back Again well – specifically, highly complex how the force of the blood flow not With such life-changing discoveries models for characterizing drugs for only changes the cells’ orientation already under his belt, Dewey could development. Back in 1981, Dewey to align with the flow direction, but have easily stopped there. But instead was a founder of the Massachusetts also changes the arrangement of he returned to the mystery of the Computer Corporation, a successful the internal structural members in fluid-force-cell connector. He ran venture to develop microprocessor- the cell and brings about dramatic across a paper published by Professor based laboratory computers for changes in cell crawling speed and Brian Duling of the University of science and engineering. That morphology. The endothelial cells Virginia showing that on top of the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 24

love for computational problems was triggered in Dewey again when Faculty Promotions it became obvious that the drug development process was eating larger and larger chunks of the health care budget, with poor results. We are pleased to announce Daniel Frey the promotions of Professor Full Professor “Many people have created elegant Daniel Frey and Professor Professor small- and mid-scale models for drug Nicolas Hadjiconstantinou, Dan Frey is a characterization, but they eventually both from the rank of researcher in become so large and complex that Associate Professor with the fields of they are impossible to deal with,” he Tenure to Full Professor; robust design says. “There are too many species and Professor Pierre Lermusiaux, and design pedagogy. He brings reactions, and no simple way to modify from the rank of Associate depth and precision to the design the data when new information comes Professor without Tenure process and has made significant to light. So what we’ve done is to treat to Associate Professor with contributions to the sub-field of each of these individual pathways for Tenure; and Professor Tonio Design of Experiments. His research combination as a black box, characterize Buonassisi, Professor Franz has rigorously shown that an adaptive the black box, and then program the Hover, Professor Rohit one-factor-at-a-time (aOFAT) approach computers to put the black boxes Karnik, and Professor Kripa to robust design, when coupled with together.” A desire to solve the problem Varanasi, each from the rank informed engineering choices and led Dewey to found another new of Assistant Professor to used in an ensemble manner, offers company, CytoSolve, Inc., with a former Associate Professor without key advantages over widely used student, Shiva Ayyadurai. Tenure. Each brings a unique fractional factorial design approaches, signature to the Department enabling engineers to effectively “The challenge of making a positive and the Institute in terms of utilize engineering knowledge to impact on increasing the success of their individual achievements engage with the design process in drug development – helping many and contributions to research, contrast to experiencing a loss in people with cancer and cardiovascular education, mentorship, and intuition and disengagement in “black disease lead better lives because of service. box” approaches. Professor Frey more intelligent drug design – is very is also strongly engaged in design exciting.” pedagogy. His classroom teaching is well recognized in both ESD and

Professor Dewey is a founding fellow of the American ME as being amongst the best. In Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, particular, since 2008, Dan has taken an inaugural fellow of the Biomedical Engineering on the lead role in 2.007, a signature Society, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and undergraduate design subject in a foreign fellow of the Royal College of Engineering MechE. He is also widely recognized (UK). He is also a vice president and trustee of the for his work in K-12 outreach, and, Fidelity Nonprofit Management Foundation. with Professor David Wallace, he played a role in developing the WGBH television program “Design Squad.” He worked with a team who helped to start a major International Design Center at MIT and at the new Singapore University of Technology and Design. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 25

Nicolas Hadjiconstantinou through his chairmanship of our different regional ocean domains. Full Professor graduate admissions committee, Many of his group’s innovations Professor his leadership of graduate programs are being integrated into large-scale Hadjiconstantinou within the Computation for Design ocean forecasting programs and is a recognized and Optimization program (CDO) real-time naval coastal monitoring international and, at the Institute level, his operations. Lermusiaux is recognized leader in numerical chairmanship of an Institute-wide as an outstanding lecturer at both the simulations of task force assigned to updating graduate and undergraduate level and micro/nanoscale and streamlining our graduate has been recognized with the MechE transport. His interests lie in the admissions processes. Department’s Spira Award. scientific challenges that arise from the failure of the traditional Pierre Lermusiaux Tonio Buonassisi macroscopic descriptions when Associate Professor with Tenure Associate Professor without Tenure the characteristic length scales Over the Professor become sufficiently small, and in past five Buonassisi is an exploiting the opportunities provided years at MIT, emerging leader by the novel behavior of matter Professor in solar energy at the nanoscale to develop new Lermusiaux conversion. concepts, devices, and systems with has His goal is improved engineering performance. established to increase His group has developed a a world- the efficiency fundamentally new class of methods renowned research group at MIT of energy conversion and to make for simulating nanoscale transport in the broad area of regional solar energy cost-competitive with phenomena, referred to collectively ocean data assimilation. He is fossil fuels. He spearheads the use as “deviational simulations,” which a nationally and internationally of “defect engineering” to achieve significantly outperform traditional recognized scholar whose research dramatic enhancements in efficiency simulation methods in a wide has already profoundly influenced in common semiconductor materials variety of nanoscale applications the fields of ocean data assimilation such as multicrystalline silicon, without introducing any additional and real-time ocean modeling which are cost-effective but defect- approximations. In addition, and forecasting, enabling the laden. Using sophisticated multiscale Professor Hadjiconstantinou quantification of regional ocean experimental characterization, is contributing to nanoscale dynamics on multiple length and Buonassisi’s group has revealed the engineering education in the ME time scales. His group creates and processing history dependence of Department and beyond. He is utilizes new models and novel iron distribution in PV silicon and a strong teacher and pedagogical methods for multiscale modeling, its governing role on performance. developer of new course materials in uncertainty quantification, data Informed by data and modeling of the the micro/nano engineering areas assimilation and the guidance of underlying diffusion and gettering that have rapidly been integrated into autonomous vehicles, applying mechanisms, his group has developed our core undergraduate and graduate these advances to better understand simulation tools that predict how curriculum. He has demonstrated physical, acoustical, and biological process parameters vary the defect leadership in the ME Department interactions in a wide variety of structure and device performance. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 26

These tools enable design of cost- and primary technology enablers include advancement of micro/nanofluidic time-efficient processing histories the breakthrough idea of using Doppler systems, including the demonstration needed to achieve performance and velocity and image sonar sensors to of a new paradigm in cell separation by have already had industrial impact, locate the vehicle relative to the ship, the steering of cells in continuous flow reducing processing times for one which in turn enabled innovations via cell-surface molecular interactions partner by more than 75%. Professor in navigation, mapping, control, and involving both chemical and topographic Buonassisi is now initiating new motion planning. The success and patterning strategies. They have also research directions within his group impact of his work is dramatic: the led the development of microfluidic and with collaborators to bring underside of a 163-meter ship hull, systems for controlled nanoprecipitation his signature defect engineering including details of the propeller of polymeric drug-delivery nanoparticles. approach to hyperdoped silicon as region, have recently been imaged This enables high-throughput and precise well as thin-film Earth-abundant using his technology. While continuing tuning of their properties, something semiconductors. to push the frontiers of marine robotics, that cannot be achieved by bulk mixing. Professor Hover also initiated and Karnik’s group is also building on a core Franz Hover developed computational tools for early- expertise in the design and fabrication Associate Professor without Tenure stage design of power systems for the of nanofluidic channels to create a new Professor All Electric Ship. class of osmosis membranes that employ Hover is an vapor-trapping nanopores to provide established Rohit Karnik selective transport of water molecules. leader in Associate Professor without Tenure Professor Karnik is a co-recipient of the field of Professor the Keenan Award for Innovation in complex Karnik’s Education and is also a recent recipient of marine research is in the the Department of Energy Early Career systems interdisciplinary Award for the study of fundamental design. He is widely respected for his field of micro/ transport properties of graphene depth and breadth across a range of nanofluidics, membranes for water disciplines, including fluid dynamics, dealing with purification. control theory, robotics, mechanical fundamental design, sensor systems, and data studies of fluid flows at submicron Kripa K. Varanasi processing, as well as for his ability length scales, as well as the design Associate Professor without Tenure to synthesize this multidisciplinary of microscale systems that exploit Professor Varanasi is recognized as an background into innovative new such flows. Within this field, his emerging leader at the crossroads of technologies. With autonomous research focuses on the discovery thermal sciences, nanotechnology, and inspection of naval ships having and elucidation of novel transport manufacturing. become a high priority for the US phenomena that can enable micro/ The principal theme Navy as a means to manage the nanofluidic systems with superior of his research safety and security of the fleet, performance in the areas of health is the discovery Professor Hover has pursued the care, energy systems, and biochemical and development challenge of developing a vehicle analysis. His group has made a of novel nano- system capable of autonomously number of key contributions to the engineered surfaces mapping a complete ship hull. The and coating > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 27

New Faculty

technologies that can fundamentally We are pleased to introduce two new alter thermal-fluid-interfacial interactions faculty members to the Department, for transformational efficiency Lieutenant Commander Jerod enhancements in various industries, Ketcham and Assistant Professor including energy, water, agriculture, Alexie Kolpak. transportation, electronics cooling, and buildings. His activities are embodied in an interdisciplinary research framework focused on nano-engineered interfaces, thermal science, and new materials discovery combined with scalable nanomanufacturing that will have impact on multiple industrial segments. His group’s work spans various thermal- fluid and interfacial phenomena, Alexie Kolpak, Assistant Jerod W. Ketcham, Associate including phase transitions, thermal Professor Professor of the Practice and fluid transport, separation, wetting, catalysis, flow assurance in oil and gas, Professor Alexie Kolpak graduated Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) from the University of Pennsylvania, Jerod Ketcham earned a BS in nanomanufacturing, and synthesis of where she earned a BA in mechanical engineering from bulk and nanoscale materials guided biochemistry, an MS in chemistry, Wichita State University, an MS in via computational materials design. and a PhD in physical chemistry. materials science and engineering His group’s studies involve insightful She worked as a postdoctoral from MIT, and a Naval Engineer’s combinations of (i) how surface associate in the Department of degree from MIT. He has served morphology at multiple scales can be Applied Physics at Yale University, in the US Navy for 15 years, most used to control interfacial interactions and and then in the Department of recently working in the OHIO scalable manufacturing of such structures, Materials Science and Engineering Replacement Program Office at (ii) fundamental studies of the physical here at MIT. the Naval Sea Systems Command. chemistry and transport processes at Dr. Kolpak’s research employs Ketcham is an expert in the interface, and (iii) atomistic- and atomic and electronic structure designing, building, overhauling, electronic-structure-level understanding modeling techniques such as and operating submarines, of interfacial interactions guiding the density functional theory (DFT) to having been involved in several synthesis of new materials. This work elucidate fundamental chemical submarine projects. He has has been recognized by an NSF CAREER and physical principles of surface extensive experience in naval Award as well as by a DARPA Young and interfacial phenomena. Her architecture and systems engineering. He is also a Investigator Award. Professor Varanasi is research is interdisciplinary in registered Professional Engineer also respected for his teaching in the core nature and includes collaborations for Naval Architecture in undergraduate design, mechanics, and with experimentalists aimed at the engineering of interfacial structures Massachusetts. thermal sciences courses. for a variety of applications, including renewable energy, novel electronics technologies, and integrated nanoscale medical devices. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 28

Department News

To see the full TR35 list, go to http:// in the Department of Mechanical Zhang Baile Named One of www.technologyreview.com/tr35. Engineering. Top 35 Innovators Under 35

Assistant Professor Zhang Baile of Inaugural Cummins-Tsinghua A native of Ireland, McGovern Nanyang Technological University Fellowship Recipient earned a bachelor’s degree from (NTU) in Singapore has recently Announced the University College Dublin, and a master’s degree in mechanical been recognized by Technology We are pleased to announce a new engineering at MIT. His PhD Review’s highly regarded TR35 graduate fellowship offered by research is focused on emerging Global list of the world’s top 35 MechE and Cummins Incorporated technologies for water desalination. innovators under the age of 35. to outstanding Chinese women who He is currently the president of the have earned a degree from Tsinghua Zhang, who earned an Graduate Association of Mechanical University and been admitted to the undergraduate degree from Engineers (GAME). MechE master’s degree program. Tsinghua University in the People’s The IDA names one recipient Republic of China and a PhD in The inaugural Cummins-Tsinghua per year from a large pool of electrical engineering and computer Fellowship for the 2012-2013 international applicants. science at MIT, is internationally academic year has been awarded recognized for his work with MechE to Qifang Bao. This past year, Bao Read the IDA’s news announcement Professor George Barbastathis on a graduated No. 1 in her class from here: http://bit.ly/P38RcQ groundbreaking invisibility cloak. Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, earning a bachelor of Renovated Sailing Pavilion is The cloak, which was named No. 4 science degree in micro-electron- One in a Million of the top 10 breakthroughs in 2010 mechanical system engineering. She by Physics World and published earned several awards during her in Physical Review Letters, works by time there, including the Excellent placing a wedge of calcite crystal Student Scholarship (twice), second – a crystalline form of calcium prize in the Sony New Product carbonate, the main ingredient in Ideas Collecting Competition, and seashells and stalactites/stalagmites second prize in the 26th National in caves – over an object. When the Undergraduate Competition of object is then illuminated by visible Physics. light and viewed from the direction With a sailing pavilion steps away from MIT’s campus, ocean perpendicular to the wedge, it IDA Awards 2012 engineering students have always “disappears” from sight because Channabasappa Memorial been a lucky bunch. But last year, the observer perceives the wedge as Scholarship flat and thus nonexistent. And it’s they got even luckier when the The International Desalination not just a simple illusion. The cloak Department renovated the MIT Association has awarded this is designed so that any scientific Sailing Pavilion, which proudly year’s Channabasappa Memorial instrument would also be “fooled” sits on the Cambridge side of Scholarship to PhD candidate Ronan into thinking the crystal surface is the Charles River. Last year, the McGovern, a member of Professor flat. Sailing Pavilion received new John H. Lienhard V’s research group docks, which allow researchers > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 29

and students to keep boats and they were there, they also had a GRIT’s LFC was also a recipient underwater vehicles at the ready, chance to test out their new and of Fast Company’s Innovation by as well as new research stations, improved glider, the primary focus Design Award this year. The judges updated and expanded building of the team’s efforts. noted that part of its ingenuity infrastructure, and brand new comes from its low-tech simplicity. MechE Wins Big at this Year’s underwater vehicles. As a result of MassChallenge Another MechE MassChallenge the extra storage and research space winner of a $100K prize was and updated equipment, students On October 23, the world’s LiquiGlide, a nontoxic, nonstick, of new course 2.680 Unmanned largest accelerator program, super slippery coating for Marine Vehicle Autonomy, Sensing, MassChallenge, announced the condiment bottles developed by and Communication and MechE winners of $1.1 million in prizes. the Varanasi Lab. Made from researchers can skip the hours of The MIT Department of Mechanical food materials, LiquiGlide is easy hauling they previously had to do Engineering was a big winner, with to apply to food packaging and and get right to work, knowing that MechE-connected teams taking prevents stubborn condiments from everything they need is awaiting home two of the four top prizes. sticking to the inside of the bottle. them at the pavilion. Global Research Innovation and LiquiGlide also won earlier this year Marine Robotics Team Technology (GRIT) was one of at MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship four winners of the major $100K Competition, bringing home the prize. GRIT is the social enterprise Audience Choice Award. It was also incorporated last year to bring the just named to TIME Magazine’s Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC), Best Inventions of 2012 list. Led by developed by Department of Professor Varanasi, the LiquiGlide Mechanical Engineering Assistant team is J. David Smith, Christopher Professor Amos Winter, to market J. Love, Adam Paxson, Brian in the developing world. Solomon, and Rajeev Dhiman.

Led by junior Jacqueline Sly, the The LFC, a first place winner of The MassChallenge winners were Marine Robotics Team is making a the 2008 MIT IDEAS competition, culled from an initial field of 1,237 comeback after most of its members takes advantage of simple physics applicants from 35 countries and graduated a few years ago. One of and geometry principles to create 36 states. One hundred twenty-five several MIT student teams supported a variable mechanical advantage teams of entrepreneurs were chosen by the Edgerton Center, and funded drivetrain controlled by the rider’s to spend the past four months in large part by Chevron, as well as upper body strength and hand in free office space in Boston’s the Department, the new Marine placement. The rider changes gears Innovation District, working with Robotics Team isn’t a competitive by either choking up on the lever mentors to refine their startups. force but rather is fueled by a passion to increase the power output or Those 125 were further narrowed for research and discovery. This by gripping low to increase speed. down to 26 finalists prior to the past summer, the group, including Riders can remove and store the announcement of the final cash team members David Wise, Tommy levers when they’re maneuvering prize winners. Moriarty, and Adrian Tanner, a indoors and need less power. Built Read more about the Leveraged student at Boston University, with bike parts, the low-cost wheel Freedom Chair at http://bit.ly/ traveled to Alaska to help mentor chair is easy and inexpensive to VhgrT5. Read more about LiquiGlide middle school students in the areas repair anywhere. of science and engineering and get at www.liqui-glide.com. them excited about technology. While MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 30

Talking Shop: Professor Ian W. Hunter The Micro Mass Spectrometer

Professor Ian W. Hunter sat down laboratory that houses one for analysis. There is also a growing interest in using with us recently to discuss one of With our device, you bring the mass spectrometers to try and deduce his newest inventions, a miniature spectrometer to the sample as opposed health status from your breath. There’s (“micro”) mass spectrometer, which to the other way around. some evidence that certain diseases give he developed with Dr. Brian Hemond, off a chemical signature in your breath What does it do? a former PhD student from his that is correlated with different disease BioInstrumentation Lab. Earlier this My favorite example is to imagine states, so you could imagine a patient year, Hunter and Hemond co-founded that you’re in a restaurant. The wine using this device at home for early microMS around the handheld server (sommelier) brings you some detection. Of course it also brings new instrument, together producing a wine and you swirl it around and sniff meaning to the breath analyzer. We make total of 13 separate inventions related its bouquet, but actually you have our the joke that with this device, when your to its fundamental technological micro-mass spectrometer hidden in breath is analyzed for alcohol, you can not advancements. your pocket that analyzes its chemical only estimate the alcohol content but also compounds and displays its results deduce that what you actually drank was a Where did the idea for the on your cellphone. You could confirm whiskey and two bourbons. micro mass spectrometer that it is indeed the wine you ordered, come from? but perhaps note that the grapes were Five years ago, a brilliant PhD student grown on the Northern slope rather in our lab, Brian Hemond, started than the optimal Southern slope. looking at all of the sub systems of It could potentially be used for health- one type of mass spectrometer and related reasons too. For example, redesigning and combining them as when you’re shopping for fruit and a single miniature system. The result vegetables, you might actually analyze was a handheld mass spectrometer the fruit and vegetables before you buy Hatsopoulos Professor of Mechanical with a manufacturing cost possibly as them to make sure they don’t have Engineering Ian W. Hunter is a low as $100. pesticides or insecticides on them. distinguished inventor. He has invented A typical mass spectrometer is a You could also imagine that you might numerous biomedical instruments, holds large instrument for performing have one of these in every refrigerator several patents, and has started more chemical analysis, such as to detect when food is going bad. than 20 companies. He received his BSc, determining air quality, composition You could even cook using our micro MSc, DCP, and PhD from the University of car exhaust fumes, or presence of mass spectrometer to determine how of Auckland in New Zealand, where he insecticides and growth hormones well done the meat is or if a particular is an honorary professor, and has been on fruit or vegetables you buy. Mass sauce is ready. a Professor of Mechanical Engineering spectrometers are also used extensively at MIT since 1994. Professor Hunter’s Anything you can smell, this device in forensics, engineering, materials passion for teaching has been recognized can potentially quantify. The nose is science, biology, and chemistry. with the Keenan Award for Innovation sensitive to molecules up to a mass to But they’re very expensive, costing charge ratio (m/z) of about 300, and anywhere from $100,000 to $1 this device can measure up to 350 m/z million. And because they’re so large, – and in a special “tuned” mode can samples are currently sent off to a measure up to 500 m/z. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2012 31

All of these examples enable a very know which smells you like and which to measure things around them, important trend of empowering smells you don’t. We might use the from air quality or the carcinogen individuals with the ability to measure micro mass spectrometer to measure and lead levels in a toy, to a type of things about themselves and about the spectra associated with those cheese or the freshness of a fruit – or their environment using personal different flowers, but that’s not going to even to identify what it is exactly they instrumentation, as opposed to relying tell us which ones you like and which like about the smell of their favorite on an expert or sending it off and ones you don’t. So we plan to build a perfume. We are even enabling the waiting a week for it to be analyzed. model that correlates the spectra the idea of sharing the spectrum of a wine mass spectrometer measures with you like, for example, with a friend, as How do you allow for people’s subjective analysis using well as sending the data users collect subjectivity for more personal themselves as a measuring instrument. back to us anonymously to identify uses, such as identifying a For example, if you were trying to trends and build up collective wisdom great glass of wine or your quantify the smell of a wonderful about ourselves and the world around favorite cup of coffee? fresh cup of coffee, we can measure us. When you smell a flower, you probably the spectra from freshly ground coffee beans, but there’s an additional step to then correlate that to what people consider to be a marvelous aroma or a bad smell. Our plan is to create a set of aficionado user groups to build up that relationship between the chemical spectra as quantified by our micro mass spectrometer and the perceptional in Undergraduate Education, the nature of that particular thing. Amar Bose Award for Excellence In fact, we already use ourselves as a in Teaching, and the Den Hartog measurement instrument, smelling Distinguished Educator Award. He is food when cooking, smelling wines and a fellow of the American Institute for cosmetics, but the difficulty is that the Medical and Biological Engineering, only way to report those interactions and a member of the American is to give words to the things you’re Association for the Advancement of smelling to describe their qualities. Science and the Institute of Electronic But how do we know that when an and Electrical Engineers. He is the individual is talking about the fine director of MIT’s BioInstrumentation bouquet of a wine that they’re talking Lab. about the same fine bouquet of a wine that another individual is describing? This instrument will extend people’s use of themselves as a measuring instrument and augment their ability Non-Profit Org. Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. Postage Department of Mechanical Engineering PAID 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-173 Brockton, MA Cambridge, MA 02139 Permit No. 301

Coming in the > Innovation and entrepreneurship in the next issue: Department of Mechanical Engineering

This past fall, Course 2.009 teams competed in a team- building challenge using human-powered “snow-ball” launchers to hit targets and reveal their team flag. Teams had 10 minutes to generate ideas for launchers and one hour to build the best one from a pre-determined kit. The winning team won the prestigious 2.009 cup. This exercise reinforces the cycle of exploration students use throughout the semester to develop real products.