Group photo of company representatives and MTL faculty and staff that participated at the IAB meeting in Cambridge on January 23, 2015
On January 23, 2015 MTL hosted the annual meeting of the MTL Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), the representative body of MTL's Microsystems Industrial Group (MIG). This meeting represents an opportunity for MTL to provide to the MIG member companies an in-depth view of current research activities as well as updates on the lab's recent activities, plans, facilities and services. The members of the IAB in turn provide feedback and suggestions to the MTL leadership on their operations and plans. All 15 of the MIG member companies were represented at this year's meeting.
Professor Jesús del Alamo began the meeting with the Director's Update, which started with an overview of the MTL mission and organizational structure. Next he reviewed the highlights of 2014, followed by plans for new initiatives for 2015. He was followed by Professor Gang Chen, who spoke on Energy transport and conversion: What's new about silicon? The presentation included a discussion of both thermoelectric and photovoltaic applications. Professor Ruonan Han came next with THz Integrated Circuits: An Electronic Handshake with Light. Various applications with silicon THz devices were presented, along with experimental results.
After a short break, Professor Jing Kong spoke on Synthesis and Applications of Graphene and Related 2D Materials. Systems discussed included graphene, molybdenum disulfide, and graphene-boron nitride hybrid structures, along with transfer techniques and applications. Professor Jongyoon Han presented On-site bioanalysis using microfluidics. The work showed the great potential of this technique in both improving the manufacturing processes for biopharmaceuticals and in enabling rapid development of biologics for low-volume but critical applications.
Dr. Vicky Diadiuk and Professor Duane Boning then provided an MTL Facilities and CAD/IT Services Update. This included an overview of improvements made in both areas and a breakdown of the user community in the past year.
After lunch, Associate Dean for Innovation Vladimir Bulovic gave an Update on MIT.nano and MIT Innovation Initiative. This included some highlights of nanotechnology research going on at MIT, the new MIT.nano facility and the new MIT Innovation Initiative.
The last portion of the meeting consisted of an open discussion among IAB representatives, the MTL leadership and attending MTL faculty and staff about the past year's MTL activities and future directions.
--Bill Holber, MTL Associate Director, Industrial Relations