Printer FriendlySensors as Small a Human Hair
Presented by: Xingwei Wang, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UMass Lowell
Workshop Description
What is a sensor? Simply something that can provide physical, chemical, or biological information. You can find sensors everywhere. A smoke detector, for example, contains a smoke sensor. A thermometer is a temperature sensor. This workshop will show you a sensor as small as a human hair. Through some simple experiments, you will learn how to use the sensor for different applications. For example, the sensor may be used for liquid level monitoring in tanks, automobiles, chemical reactions, and so on. Another example is using the sensor for crack detection, which can monitor the health of aircraft, dams, bridges, and buildings.
Leader’s Job Description
In addition to teaching, research is a critical part of an assistant professor’s tasks. My research interests are to design and develop novel optical sensors, test them in the lab and field, and finally transfer such technologies to companies for products. For example, we can build sensors on the tip of a 125 micrometer optical fiber, which is as small as your hair. This sensor can be used to measure temperature, pressure, and strain, which can be used to tell us the state of health of a structure. The sensor can also be designed to detect biomolecules, such as bacteria and virus and they can send out warning signals to protect people from danger.
Advice for Career Path
To be a professor in Engineering, a Ph.D. degree is necessary. To be creative is very important also. It important be able to think about more than just what is in the textbooks. If you have the opportunity, attend seminars and summer camps to study outside the classroom. Try to learn different disciplines. You will find out later that many disciplines that seem unrelated are really very fundamentally connected. Of course, you need to do well in math, since it provides you with the key to solving problems.