Georgia Tech faculty and alumni at the 2022 Hilton Head Workshop.
Some of the brightest minds in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) will gather in South Carolina at the beginning of June for the Hilton Head Workshop 2024: A Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems.
Among them are many researchers with current or former ties to the Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE). From organizers to the presenters, the workshop will be buzzing with Yellow Jackets working on the next big MEMS innovation.
The multidisciplinary workshop has been held biennially since 1984, bringing together 350-500 participants from academia, industry, and government. Its aim is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and discuss advances in microfabrication technologies for various applications.
As the Hilton Head Workshop marks its 40th anniversary, participants will celebrate the accomplishments in MEMS and microsystems since its inception, while also exploring the challenges and possibilities that lie ahead for the next 40 years.
MEMS technology covers any technological advancement in miniaturization of sensors and electronics and their integration. It has become increasingly important across a number of industries as devices have gotten smaller, while simultaneously improving power and reducing costs.
Georgia Tech has a long history of contributions to the MEMS industry and the workshop, dating back over 20 years, with attributed research and leadership to the event as far back as records go in 2002.
“The impact of work that happened at Georgia Tech on the overall MEMS community is immense,” University of Central Florida Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering and ECE alumni Swaminathan Rajaraman said. “Graduates from very active research groups at GT are now found throughout academic and industry.”
This year, 13 researchers from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the School of Biomedical Engineering (BME) had papers accepted to the workshop.
On top of the research paper her team is presenting, ECE Associate Professor Azadeh Ansari will sit on the Awards Committee, Technical Program Committee, and is a chair for Session 3 on Resonators, Oscillators and Micromotors.
ECE Ph.D. candidate Zhijian Hao will present the paper, “Multi-Modal MEMS Sensing Module for Extraterrestrial Oceanographic Exploration,” a collaboration with Ansari and fellow Ph.D. candidate Yue Zheng, along with Ethan W. Schaler from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.
BME Ph.D. candidates Cecilia A. Luna, Saeyoung Kim, and Adeoye Olomodosi will present a paper they co-authored with BME Assistant Professors Nicholas Au Yong, Brooks D. Lindsey, and David R. Myers titled, “Ultrasound-Based Telemetry of Implanted Microfluidics for Intercranial Pressure Sensing.”
ECE Associate Professor Azadeh Ansari
Myers is part of another project accepted to the workshop. This one is a collaboration with BME students Anjana Dissanayaka, Lily Kamat, and Priscilla Delgado, along with colleagues from Emory University titled, “Rapid, Low-Cost Carbapenemase Detection Using a Self-Coalescing Sticker Microfluidic For Enhanced Management of Carbapenemase-Producing Organisms in Healthcare Settings.”
Georgia Tech’s impact extends to alumni, as Tech graduates are scattered throughout the workshop’s leadership team. Many of these alumni conducted their graduate research in ECE Professor Farrokh Ayazi’s Integrated MEMS Laboratory.
Georgia Tech faculty and alumni at the 2018 Hilton Head Workshop.
Rajaraman and ECE alumna Jenna Chan, now with DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, are serving in top leadership positions as the program chair and general chair respectively.
Additionally, Universidad del Norte Professor Mauricio Pardo Gonzalez, Logan Sorenson with HRL Laboratories, and Benoit Hamelin with EngeniusMicro are all ECE alumni serving on the Technical Program Committee alongside Ansari.
Finally, ECE graduate and University of Florida Associate Professor Roozbeh Tabrizian is the chair of the Commercial Development Committee - University & Lab Engagement.
Oliver Brand with other Georgia Tech faculty and alumni at the 2012 Hilton Head Workshop.
Former ECE Professor and Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology Executive Director Oliver Brand passed away in 2023 and will be honored during the program. He was an active member of the Hilton Head Workshop community throughout his career.
The workshop will take place from Sunday, June 2, 2024 to Thursday, June 6, 2024.
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