The
Waterloo
Institute
for
Nanotechnology
(WIN)
is
happy
to
welcome
Professor
Hamed
Shahsavan
to
the
WIN
family!
Professor
Shahsavan
will
deliver
a
seminar
in
order
to
introduce
himself
and
his
research
to
our
community.
Please
join
us
in
giving
him
a
warm
welcome.
Abstract
The development of microscale devices and robots is a multidisciplinary theme that links different fields of research, such as biology, materials science, instrumentation and control, and artificial intelligence. During the last decade, this theme of research has played a significant role in the understanding, development and application of microscale devices and robots. In this regard, the structural materials that can be scaled down by various microfabrication techniques and integrate sensing, actuating and powering tasks in constructs with less number of components are highly desired.
In
this
seminar,
Professor
Shahsavan
will
show
the
importance
of
liquid
crystal
networks
(LCNs)
in
the
design
and
fabrication
of
microscale
robots
and
devices.
He
will
present
our
recent
progress
in
the
development
of
artificial
muscles
and
robotic
constructs
from
LCNs
that
can
be
remotely
stimulated
by
a
variety
of
cues,
such
as
heat,
light and
the
electrical
field
at
different
scales and
media.
He
will
also
present
opportunities
to
create
novel
solutions
or
augment
the
existing
capabilities
of
microscale
robotic
systems,
with
an
emphasis
on
their
future
biomedical
applications.
Biographical
Sketch
Hamed Shahsavan is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Waterloo. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering - Nanotechnology from the University of Waterloo in 2017.
Before his appointment in 2020, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. During his PhD studies, he was a visiting scholar in the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, Ohio, USA. During his post-doctoral fellowship, he was a visiting scientist in the Smart Photonic Materials (SPM) research group at the University of Tampere in Finland.
His current research interests revolve around the development of a variety of soft, stimuli-responsive and programmable materials. In addition, he is interested in emerging fabrication strategies for the manufacturing of small-scale mobile robots and devices, such as direct laser writing and micro-scale 4D printing.