The goals of this project are to supplement existing Engineering Technology courses with microfluidics-based laboratories and projects, create new microfluidics-focused courses for Lab-on-a-Chip technology, and develop facilities and resources for supporting microfluidics-based Senior Design Projects. The project is providing students with microfluidics-based learning experiences that are essential for students to develop a better understanding of micro-scale and nano-scale processes and techniques. The project efforts have potential broader impacts in many branches of engineering (such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, and materials) and sciences (such as chemistry, physics, and biology). The course materials developed from this project are disseminated to partnering community colleges and regional middle and high schools.
This grant supported the introduction and integration of microfluidics based experiments and projects into the Engineering Technology Curriculum at Drexel University. Microfluidics (also called "Lab on a Chip' or Micro Total Analytical Systems) is an emerging and enabling technology for the miniaturization of chemistry, biology, process engineering, and medical diagnostics. Microfluidic modules or 'chips' are typically made as credit-card sized cartridges in clear plastic, and host a fluidic network of conduits, channels, valves, actuators, chambers, and filters. Samples and small fluid portions (nanoliter to milliliter sized volumes0 are loaded into the chip and processed and analyzed, typically with the aid of supporting instrumentation. Major application areas of microfluidics include high-throughput and micro-scale chemistry, drug research, and biology, e.g., for screening and discovery, point-of-care medical diagnostics, analytical chemistry, microscale energy conversion devices (e.g., fuel cells), and customized production of specialty chemicals. Microfluidics is also an effective vehicle for teaching a number of engineering disciplines, and provides many multidisciplinary case studies for integrating a wide range of engineering, science, and technology subjects. Microfluidics technology is readily accessible to students using widely available resources for CAD (computer-aided design), prototyping, and instrumentation and testing. We emphasized image processing for experimentation to visualize and analyze fluid flow phenomena. Microfluidic experiments were developed to supplement courses in Fluid Mechanics, Rapid Prototyping, CAD, Quality Assurance, Heat Transfer, Feedback Control, and Robotics. Senior Design Projects included microfuel cells, point of care medical diagnostic devices. Topics including capillary-driven and pressure-driven flow in microfluidic channels, thermal imaging of microscale heat exchanges, robotic controlled flow of ferrofluids in microfluidi circuis, PID control schemes for temperature regulation in microfluidic chips, microscale extraction of plasma from blood, smart-phone based fluorimetry, experiments with algae in microfluidic systems, instrumentation of microfluidic chips for temperature, pressure, and flow rate; molecular diagnostics for point-of-care medical tests, and chemical heating of microfluidic systems. The students were directly involved in all stages of the engineering: design, simulation and modeling, prototyping, instrumentation and sensors, and testing and validation. Microfludics-based Laboratories help provide sustainable eduction. Many of the microfluidic lab projects here can be performed on a desktop, and consume only small amounts of materials and reagents. They can replace the comparatively larger equipment often used in undergraduate fluid mechanics and heat transfer labs. Safety issues are mitigated, and the experiments reduce the amount of waste generation. Most of the experiments rely on common resources such as conventional machine shops, CCD cameras, microcontrollers, and inexpensive small parts such as syringes, miniature pumps, plastic tubing and fittings. Microfluidics provides an effective gateway to the biological and biomedical sciences for engineering students. A prominent applications area and focus of this work was translating conventional benchtop bioassays to microfluidic formats. Engineering students were thus immersed in practicalities of immunoassays, cell culture, and molecular diagnostics. Another application area was microscale energy conversion devices. Results of this program were published in the Conference Proceedings of the ASEE. Secondary school and college science teachers were hosted in our laboratories to develop on microfluidics-based projects in the Drexel Research Experience for Teachers program. The programs also supported graduate and undergraduate student researchers.
