Paul McEuen, "Microscopic Robots?" | KNI Distinguished Seminar

On April 13, 2021 Professor Paul McEuen (Cornell University) presented the KNI Distinguished Seminar on "Microscopic Robots?".
McEuen examines the challenge and opportunity of building microscopic robots, and asks, "If Nature can do it, why can't we?" Two major components are required: electronic actuators to operate as the robot's micro-appendages and a power/communication system to transmit energy and information. In this talk, McEuen discusses his team's work at Cornell to solve these problems. "We first created OWiCs, or Optical Wireless Integrated Circuits, that use light for comms and power. OWiCs are smartphones for the micro world, with potential applications in everything from implantable sensors to microscopic ID tags to the brains of a microscopic robot. For appendages, we developed a new class of electrochemical actuators called SEAs that readily flex on the micron scale. We then integrated SEAs with OWiCs to build our first prototype microscopic robots, which now hold a Guinness World Record for the Smallest Walking Robot. But what are they good for? To quote Benjamin Franklin: 'What good is a newborn baby?'".
The KNI Distinguished Seminar Series is a series hosted by The Kavli Nanoscience Institute where eminent scientists and thinkers with strong yet varied backgrounds in nanoscience and nanotechnology share their expertise with the Caltech community. The scopes of presentations may range from: recent outstanding scientific highlights/technological advancements, to innovative early-stage research developments, to broader cross-disciplinary topics that are relevant to nanoscience. Each seminar is recorded and posted to the KNI KZbin channel.

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Will we have these in our bodies this decade?