Microsystems & Nanorobots Actuated by Light, Magnetic Fields, & 3D Ultrasound - Prof. Peer Fischer

This presentation is part of the 2020 Distinguished Seminar Series. Abstract Inspired by Richard Feynman’s famous lecture “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”, researchers are striving to build synthetic motors, machines, and robots ‘bottom up’ from the nanoscale. However, despite progress in crafting static structures of increasing complexity, truly functional dynamic machines are still in their infancy. Building and powering artificial structures that operate at the microscale is very challenging, as it is generally not possible to translate actuation mechanisms and design-concepts from the macro- to the nanoscale. At this scale different physical phenomena are important and there are no ready-made motors and no off-the-shelf parts. In this talk I will describe the fabrication and operation of “nanobots” that can be controlled in fluids with light and magnetic fields and that are able to penetrate cells and complex biological tissues. Another means of power transfer to operate microdevices is