Project laboratory Microfluidics - Design, Fabrication, and Application

After participation in this course, the student is able to independently conduct defined research projects related to microfluidics. This includes: • performing a literature research with regards to defined subfields in the above given field • designing experiments that allow testing hypotheses with respect to said field • conducting experiments to gather microscopic or electrochemical data • analyzing structural microscopic data, electrochemical characteristics or sensor readings • presenting results orally during biweekly group meetings and in writing in the form of a lab report

Projects are given out based on availability throughout the semester. Please contact Bernhard Wolfrum, Senyao Wang or Lukas Hiendlmeier for further info. The participants will work on up-to-date research projects of the neuroelectronics group. The course will start with a screening of the current literature. Afterwards, the students will work on a defined scientific project within the context of electrochemistry and biosensors. Specifically, the students will work on topics such as - high-resolution 3D printing of hydrogels - tuning resin characteristics for 3D printed microfluidics - flow-rate control in gravity-driven fluidics - flow-rate sensing - fluid mixing - analyte pre-concentration - etc.

BioMEMS & Microfluidics

The module will comprise a project lab course. After an introduction to the field, the student will independently carry out state-of-the-art microfluidics experiments. The results will be analyzed and discussed with an experienced tutor. This will help the student to design follow-up experiments to reach their scientific goal. Thereby the students will achieve a deeper understanding of the interdisciplinary field of neuroelectronics in a research environment and learn to design, conduct, analyze and present scientific experiments. The students will present their results in a written report as well as an oral presentation. The integration of students within the research group is fostered by appointing an experienced group member as an additional mentor. This will allow the students to participate at cutting-edge research projects at an early stage of their career.

B. J. Kirby, Micro- and Nanoscale Fluid Mechanics, 1st ed. (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2013) Additional project-specific literature will be given at the project start.