Research Projects

Nature, in its quest for the best designs has shaped its vital systems into fractal geometries (e.g. leaf veins, respiratory system). Recent literature indeed confirms effectiveness of these geometries in several applications including tissue engineering, heat and mass transport, non-transparent solar electrodes, and capillary pumping, among others. This project proposes to develop technology and prototype (manual and automated) of a machine that can manufacture 2.5 dimensional fractal patterns spanning micron, millimeter, centimeter, and possibly meter scales in a matter of a few seconds. We propose to use Saffman-Taylor instability in lifted Hele-Shaw cell for the same. The novelty here (patent pending) is in developing high degree of control over otherwise random spontaneous formations, by using anisotropy on the cell plate, and further, by retaining their formed geometry. Applications in low cost diagnostics platform and platform for chemotaxis would be developed.