Posted April 22, 2010
Johannes Kutten, class of 2010, has won a SURF (summer undergraduate research fellowship) through NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg, MD. Johannes will be working in the Complex Fluids group, part of the Materials Science and Engineering Lab (MSEL). The project he is involved with examines microfluidic devices which could be used to carry out chemical reactions at a very small scale. To accomplish this, reagents would have to be mixed in very precise amounts. Our devices are designed to create uniform droplets of water in oil in order to demonstrate how microfluidic channels can be used to measure out precise quantities of fluid. In our devices, a channel containing flowing water intersects a channel containing flowing oil at a T-junction. We can control the size of the droplets by adjusting the flow rates. Johannes' specific project is to write and calibrate a LabVIEW feedback control program. Johannes will return to RPI in the fall to complete his co-terminal degree.