Cluster-Wells: Isolating Aggressive Tumor Cell Clusters for Improved Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
  • High performing: Demonstrates superior abilities to isolate CTCs without clogging the system or dissociating the clusters
  • Low cost: Shows high potential for large-scale production because it uses simple equipment and a straightforward process
  • Versatile: Isolates CTC clusters of any cancer type and uses hardware that can be modified to accommodate various devices
Nanotechnology
Low-Power Real-Time Ionizing Radiation Detector
  • Sensitive: Detects the charge generated from the interactions of ionizing radiation within matter with a high level of precision and discerns X-ray pulses of varying dose
  • Scalable: Covers a significantly larger detection area than other methods, ranging from 60,000 square micrometers to one square millimeter
  • Responsive: Responds within microseconds and proportionately with the overall radiation dose when exposed to X-rays of varying tube voltage (energy) and tube current (number of particles)
Nanotechnology
Self-Powered Highly Stretchable Sensing Interface for Gesture Recognition
  • Self-contained: Includes a signal processing pipeline, providing gesture recognition for an extensive range of input modalities without the need for external power or sensing equipment
  • Assistive: Enables eyes-free, unobtrusive, and ergonomic interaction with computing devices embedded in wearables
  • Versatile: Demonstrates far-reaching potential for applications beyond gesture recognition including in actuation and data acquisition
Electrical Computer Engineering
Integrated Alkali Dispenser Collimator
  • Precise: Reducing the “spread” of vapor via collimation can reduce potential signal-to-noise ratio degradation and avoid contamination of nearby electronic components.
  • Simple: Generating a directed atomic beam from the dispenser can be achieved via integrated packaging.
  • Cooler: Placing a spacer material between the dispenser and collimator creates a sealed gap that not only prevents leakage, but also allows the vapor to cool (via rapid thermalization with the collimator plate).
Electrical Computer Engineering
Chip-Scale Electrochemical Double-Layer (ECDL) Supercapacitors
  • Decreased size: Minimizes space that does not contribute to volumetric density and is drastically smaller than conventional ECDL capacitors, allowing capacitor-dependent devices to shrink considerably
  • High power: Achieves gravimetric energy densities of over 100 watt-hours per kilogram
  • Improved performance: The vertically aligned graphene-functionalized carbon nanotubes Offers high porosity and surface area for improved pseudocapacitance by vertically aligning graphene-functionalized nanotubes
Electrical Computer Engineering
Superior Supercapacitors
  • High performance: Achieves average energy densities as high as 90 Wh/Kg
  • Scalable: Leverages a low-cost PAN fabrication process that dramatically increases surface area
  • Widely applicable: Demonstrates potential for advances in a variety of energy storage and capacitive water desalination applications
Electrical Computer Engineering
Nanoparticle-Stabilized Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for Efficient, Large-Scale Gas Separation
  • Cost efficient: Eliminates the need for the time-consuming process of post-treating precursor fibers in a chemical modifying agent in order to prevent collapse
  • Scalable: Increases available surface area for gas separation to accommodate large-scale applications
  • Adaptable: Allows for selection of the nanoparticles’ concentration and type to meet a desired combination of gas permeance and selectivity
Nanotechnology
Skin-Conformal Wearable Stress Monitor Delivers Greater Precision and Continuous, Wireless Monitoring with Comfort and Flexibility
  • All-in-one: The personal adhesive bandage-like single device platform offers wireless, multi-data sensing by simply mounting it on the skin.
  • Disposable: This wearable device is fully disposable after the use and the measured data can be simply sent to the cloud via a tablet or smartphone app.
  • Compact: The unique, thin design of this bioelectric device is one-sixth the volume of current market offerings—weighing less than 7 g, including its rechargeable battery.
Nanotechnology
Zeolite Membrane Sieves Fabricated on Low-Cost Alumina Hollow Fiber Substrates
  • High performance: Enables lower-cost, scalable, membrane-based molecular separation
  • Convenient: Can form a standalone complete separation or reduce bottlenecks in conventional separation processes
Nanotechnology
All-Electronic Immunophenotyping Device for Point-of-Care Testing
  • Convenient: Provides an all-electronic immunophenotyping process with straightforward equipment and techniques
  • Low cost: Performs sophisticated, multistep analyses in a system that is affordable enough for point-of-care settings
  • Flexible: Allows for the easy immobilization of multiple antibodies in the device—a shortcoming of current systems
Nanotechnology
Scalable Microfluidic Device with Multiple Constriction Channels for High-Throughput Mechanophenotyping
  • High throughput: Addresses the low-throughput challenges of other similar technologies by handling a sample volume near that of a Coulter counter
  • Low cost: Eliminates the need for costly equipment, highly trained personnel, and long processing times that come with other measuring processes
  • Scalable: Uses a frequency division scheme so that multiple copies of the system can operate concurrently
Nanotechnology
Hybrid Triboelectric Nanogenerator Harvests Mechanical and Electrical Energy
  • Sustainable: Harvests energy from the environment to minimize the use of non-renewable materials for power
  • Highly efficient: Exhibits an unprecedented conversion efficiency of 50% to 85%, an area power density of 313 watts per square meter, and a volume power density of 340 kilowatts per cubic meter
  • Powerful: Integrates with several other TENGs for output power of 1 megawatt
Nanotechnology
Novel Polymer Hybrid Improves Stability of Implantable Devices
  • Strong: Provides structural stability and enhanced cellular adhesion for implant materials
  • Biocompatible: Reduces the risk for complications that could arise with the use of chemical components
  • Customizable: Permits easy incorporation of various nanomaterials to fine-tune devices to meet patient needs
Advanced Materials
Core-Shell Nanogel Cellular Delivery Vehicles
  • Delivery of a broad range of various materials to cells
  • Higher payloads and faster and more sustained  RNA interference than non-targeted commercial siRNA delivery vehicle
  • Less toxic than commercial liposomal formulations
Nanotechnology
Large-Scale Manufacturing and Directed Assembly for Nanowires
  • Greater than 106 improvement in the rate of nanowire synthesis compared with the current state-of-the-art
  • Applicable to diverse classes of materials, dopant concentrations, and morphologies
  • Superstructure assembly is programmable via tip geometry and is material independent
Nanotechnology