I'm doing research.
No, seriously, it is scientific and in no way affiliated with the purpose of gleaning info about the opposite sex.
What i'm doing is a quite simply actually.
Microbubble Pumps:
At the micron level, it is possible to engineer a pump that is capable of pumping fluids merely by applying ultrasound waves to it. What happens is this:
Entrapped within the pump is a bubble of roughly 1 mm in size. Upon application of ultrasound waves, the bubble starts decreasing and increasing in size. Now, the bubble is entrapped in a small portion of the pump between two reservoirs (of about 5mm in diameter each). When the bubble contracts, it draws in water from one reservoirs and upon expansion, pushes the water into the other reservoir. Its seriously cool.
What my partner and i are doing is actually working with a professor to develop these pumps. We basically come up with designs for the pumps using a software similar to AutoCAD, upload the data onto a laser etching machine which will etch out the shape of the pump on a plastic microscope pump. We then inject a mixture of water and ethanol into the pump and test it out under a microscope. (Ethanol is to help draw the water into the 500 micron width channel in the pump. The bubble forms naturally).
If the rough pump works, we etch out the same design onto silicone wafers and then use that as a mold to engineer a more precise pump out of a material called PDMS.
A transducer is used to generate the ultrasound waves.
Righto, pics:
My lab partner: Suky
Injecting ethanol and water
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