CV :
Karl Böhringer is Professor of Electrical Engineering with adjunct appointments in Computer Science & Engineering and in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. His current interests include micromanipulation and microassembly, as well as biomedical implants and bioMEMS for single-cell genomics and proteomics. At the University of Washington, he is a member of the Center for Nanotechnology and the NIH Microscale Life Sciences Center. His Ph.D. thesis was nominated for the ACM doctoral dissertation award. His work was featured among the Top 100 Science Stories in Discover Magazine's "Year in Science" in January 2003. He received the 2004 Academic Early Career Award from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.


Abstract : Programmable Self-Assembly for Microsystem Integration
Massively parallel self-assembling systems present a promising alternative to conventional manufacturing. Recently, various successful instances of self-assembly have been demonstrated; however, the full impact of this approach will only be realized once these systems can be programmed and reconfigured on demand. In this presentation, we review several projects that lead towards such self-assembling systems. A key concept toward this goal is the "programmable surface" - an engineered interface whose characteristics (surface forces, hydrophobicity, friction, etc.) can be controlled with high spatial and temporal resolution. We present sample projects that address various aspects ranging from real-time control of surface properties, to binding site designs that optimize attractive forces between components, to computational and algorithmic issues in the modeling of self-assembling systems.