ICTAS overview
An overview of ICTAS research is available in PDF format by clicking here.

ICTAS Patents
ICTAS inventors have several patents, both active and pending. View them here.

Schools, Centers, Initiatives
ICTAS continues to invest in large on-going centers to help further expand the university research enterprise. More info available here.

Micromachined Hot-Wire Thermal Conductivity Probe for Biomedical Applications
Writtten by Ming Yi, Hrishikesh V. Panchawagh, Ronald J. Podhajsky, and Roop Mahajan
for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, October 2009
Abstract:
This paper presents the design, fabrication, numerical simulation, and experimental validation of a micromachined probe that measures thermal conductivity of biological tissues. The probe consists of a pair of resistive line heating elements and Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) sensors, which were fabricated by using planar photolithography on a glass substrate. The numerical analysis revealed that the thermal conductivity and diffusivity can be determined by the temperature response induced by the uniform heat flux in the heating elements. After calibrating the probe using a material (agar gel) of known thermal conductivity, the probe was deployed to calculate the thermal conductivity of Crisco. The measured value is in agreement with that determined by the macro hot-wire probe method to within 3%. Finally, the micro thermal probe was used to investigate the change of thermal conductivity of pig liver before and after R ablation treatment. The results show an increase in thermal conductivity of liver after the RF ablation.

Measuring the nano-world
Writtten by Dr. Thomas A. Campbell for Science Direct, July 2009.
An excerpt:
Without measurement, nanotechnology would be a mere thought experiment. One could argue that nanotechnology only really came into its own with the advent of new instruments enabling us to 'see' at the nanoscale.

A piezomagnetoelastic structure for broadband vibration energy harvesting
This letter introduces a piezomagnetoelastic device for substantial enhancement of piezoelectric power generation in vibration energy harvesting. Electromechanical equations describing the nonlinear system are given along with theoretical simulations. Experimental performance of the piezomagnetoelastic generator exhibits qualitative agreement with the theory, yielding large-amplitude periodic oscillations for excitations over a frequency range. Comparisons are presented against the conventional case without magnetic buckling and superiority of the piezomagnetoelastic structure as a broadband electric generator is proven. The piezomagnetoelastic generator results in a 200% increase in the open-circuit voltage amplitude (hence promising an 800% increase in the power amplitude).
©2009 American Institute of Physics

Fabrication and mechanical characterization of a force sensor based on an individual carbon nanotube
We demonstrate the design and calibration of an individual carbon nanotube (CNT) based mechanical force sensor for measuring cell wall compliance. The device fabrication and in situ mechanical characterization were carried out using a micromanipulator inside a scanning electron microscope. This simple device acts as a micro-cantilever beam and consists of a tungsten probe with a CNT attached to its tip, while the other end of the CNT supports a polystyrene microsphere. We have calculated the bending modulus of individual multi-walled carbon nanotubes from the calibration tests. These values agree with those available in the literature.