Theory

[1] Non-linear ion dynamics at large voltages

To understand and develop mathematical models to describe non linear electrokinetic phenomena such as double layer dynamics and Faradaic reactions at large voltages. Various applications includes coupled dynamics of DNA molecules with diffuse ionic charge inside microfluidic channels, formation of space charge layers etc. I use both analytical and numerical approaches to simulate diffuse charge dynamics of ions as a tool for the development of miniaturized "Lab on a Chip" devices. (Computational Tools : Mathematica, COMSOL)

[2] Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations for microfluidic chip design

I used Computational Fluid Dynamics as a tool to design and simulate our custom designed "Droplet on Demand" microfluidic devices. This involves use of surface-capturing schemes such as Volume of Fluid method to solve multiphase fluid flow equations. I also used hydrodynamic circuit models to complement detailed multiphase models for large scale microfluidic design. (Computational Tools : OpenFOAM, Salome Platform, Paraview, QUCS)

[3] Optical microscopy design and adaptive optics

We used Mathematica ray tracing routine (Optica) to design line scanning optical microscopy. The optics is designed based on requirements such as microscope resolution, scan area (field of view), working distance and optical aberrations. These ray tracing calculations were implemented to design large area scanning microscopy used in CADMAD and MICREAgents project.

[4] Dynamics and transport of programmable autonomous microscopic devices

Programmable motion of autonomous CMOS particles using electroosmotic drive. These programmable CMOS particles act as finite state machines inside the chemical environment. By coupling programmable motion with dynamic chemical field sensing, these particles could perform chemotactic walk. By influencing the chemical field around them, these particles could communicate with each other. They could also form microscopic compartments, which could possibly create an electronic-chemical building blocks for developing artificial cells.