Advanced Micromechanical Systems by Dr. Marc Serra-Garcia

ABSTRACT: A single micromechanical resonator has impressive capabilities: A vibrating cantilever can be used to visualise individual atoms in an atomic force microscope, or distinguish between healthy and diseased proteins by detecting small changes in its resonating mass. Going beyond these well-known applications requires building systems with more degrees of freedom. This presents an additional unsolved challenge: the system design becomes prohibitively complex as the number of degrees of freedom is increased. In this talk I will discuss an approach towards engineering micro-mechanical systems based on using discrete models as intermediate steps in the design process. I will demonstrate the approach using thermal machines and topological materials as examples, and will discuss future directions in the fields of energy, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

BIOSKETCH: Dr. Marc Serra-Garcia is a postdoctoral scholar at ETH Zurich. He seeks to enable ultra-energy-efficient information processing devices by using nonlinear micro-mechanical phenomena, with applications ranging from quantum computing to the internet of things. Before that, he conducted research at the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute (2008-2011), Caltech (MS, 2013) and ETH Zurich (Ph.D. 2017). His research has been published in prestigious journals such Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Physics, and he was the technical co-founder at the startup TapTools, producing portable and in-line non-destructive testing devices.

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Feb 27, 2019
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Location:
37-124 Engineering IV
420 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles CA