Education & Outreach

• Two graduate students were funded by this project. Both were trained in PI’s labs and assisted PI to conduct research work. One student (Dr. L. Du) graduated with a PhD degree and now is continuing the research as a PostDoc researcher (Year 3 and Year4).

• Three undergraduate students (2 in Year 1 and 1 in Year 4) were trained to assist the research activities.

• The inductive Coulter counter sensing concept and testing results were included in PI Zhe’s existing MEMS courses “Fundamentals of MEMS” and “Design of MEMS and Nano Devices”. In the lab session of both classes, students were asked to get into PI’s MEMS Lab, and inspect the device under the microscopes. The graduate students showed detection of metallic particles using the device to the classes (Year 1, 2, 3, 4)

• The concept of microfluidic sensors was introduced to high school girls when they visited PI’s lab in summer 2011 and 2012 via UA’s “Women in Engineering” Program. They observed both prototypes under microscopes and were demonstrated the generation of inductive pulses when the particles were loaded (Year 1 and Year 2).

• One high school student researcher from Copley-Fairlawn High School, was recruited to conduct sensor research in PI’s MEMS lab. He had been working with the graduate students every Wednesday from 3pm to 7pm from January 2011 to June 2012. He was admitted by Duke University in 2012 and had chosen engineering as his major (Year 1 and Year 2).