Some of these are obsolete; projects for 2011 will appear here later
I will be adding/editing this list as I come across new ideas. There may be more than one student doing the same project (individually) and there may be several working as a group. In fact, the hands-on projects involving coding or hardware are probably best done by groups. The list is in arbitrary order. If you have an idea of your own that you want to explore, come talk about it. Project proposals (1-2 pages) are due the week after Spring break. In a proposal, students must explain what they expect to achieve and how they are going to go about it.
- Read the paper by S. Kondo and T. Miura, “Reaction-diffusion model as a framework for understanding biological pattern formation”, Science, Vol. 329, No. 5999, pp. 1616-1620, 24 September 2010. Download their simulator and investigate experimentally how to use the reaction-diffusion approach to generate some interesting patterns found in nature. NOTE: This approach is due originally to Turing, of Turing machine fame.
- Self-organization from the point of view of nonlinear dynamic systems; simulation.
- Self-organization from the point of view of cellular automata; simulation.
- Simulator for bacterial motion; with decent graphics.
- Simulator for ant-like algorithms.
- Simulate the tip-surface forces so as to predict force-distance curves in an AFM. References: the papers by Garcia and San Paolo covered in class, and the book by Israelachvili.
- Extend the previous simulation so as to compute amplitude-distance curves in an AFM in dynamic force mode (“tapping”).
- Simulate the complete operation of an AFM for imaging operations. Extend the simulation to cover pushing operations. This is a group project.
- Build a high-level planner for particle manipulation but restricting moves to two orthogonal directions.
- Ditto, but for multiple tips.
- Communications at the nanoscale: RF, IR, light, sound; attenuation in air, liquids, and the body; antenna size; effective distances; strategies.
- Resonant micro and nano cantilevers. Use as sensors; how small can they be?; carbon nanotubes; use as RF emitters/receivers.
- Unconventional manipulation techniques: electrokinetics, dielectrophoresis, thermal gradients, magnetics, optics, …
- DNA as a scaffold (possibly sacrificial) for nanostructures; wires; more general structures.
