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A letter to Prof. Liu, Spring 2008
Dear Prof. Liu,
It has been half a year since I came here. I am fine and start missing delicious foods in Taiwan.
Instead of taking ME218b, I re-took classical control class, EE312 Micromachined Sensors and Actuators and ME309 Finite Element Analysis in Mechanical Design last quarter. EE312 was not taught by Prof. Greg Kovacs because he is on leave as a Director at DARPA starting this January. In Spring quarter I plan to take ME220 Introduction to Sensors (by Dr. Rob Candler) and E341 Micro/Nano Systems Design and Fabrication Laboratory (by Prof. Roger Howe). Rob is the one started HERMIT resonator project in Kenny's group. E341 and the successive E342 integrate EE321(used to be given by Prof. Solgaard) and MEMS fabrication class, meaning that EE321 will not be given any more. There are two versions of E341: 3-unit and 5-unit; the latter one has limited enrollment. Those who take 5-unit version will go through the process of a piezoresistive device in SNF. They are very likely to continue their projects in E342 by realizing the designs in the fab. So, basically the projects for 5-unit takers are pre-defined by MEMS faculty at Stanford (knowing that fabrication burns money.) Prof. Kenny also funds one project- energy scavenging devices. And as a result, I am fortunately in the 5-unit taker list.
I made my "semi"-presentation last quarter. We (me and the other two project partners) took two presentation slots to introduce the energy scavenging project to the entire group. Chandra, the senior partner, gave a generic discussion on the vibrational energy scavenger. Shingo and I shared one slot to discuss the piezoelectric and capacitive designs respectively. Our target is to scavenge the vibration energy in a car, maybe from engine, wheels, and so on. The challenge of this project is to design a low frequency mechanical structure via MEMS. Tom also wants us to reduce stress concentration in the structures as many existing designs have serious stress concentration issue that limits durability. I am thinking to use PDMS as the flexure material in capacitive design to meet the low frequency and durable requirements. Although there are certain ways to "deposit" metal on PDMS, the fabrication still sets limitations on the design configuration. As for a silicon-based design, encapsulation technique developed in Kenny's group provides high Q system, which is also promising and indispensable in this application.
I really want to thank you again and again for the effort to make my path such "easy" and "straight" at Stanford. There are always many students trying hard to get funding, join our group or even simply contact Prof. Kenny that turns out to be in vain. I am trying to move forward with a grateful mind. By the way, Tom never discusses the quals with me. I guess this probably because the funding for this project is one year currently. Do you think I shall ask Tom actively?
Wish you and your family happy and healthy,
Cathy
Dear Prof. Liu,
It has been half a year since I came here. I am fine and start missing delicious foods in Taiwan.
Instead of taking ME218b, I re-took classical control class, EE312 Micromachined Sensors and Actuators and ME309 Finite Element Analysis in Mechanical Design last quarter. EE312 was not taught by Prof. Greg Kovacs because he is on leave as a Director at DARPA starting this January. In Spring quarter I plan to take ME220 Introduction to Sensors (by Dr. Rob Candler) and E341 Micro/Nano Systems Design and Fabrication Laboratory (by Prof. Roger Howe). Rob is the one started HERMIT resonator project in Kenny's group. E341 and the successive E342 integrate EE321(used to be given by Prof. Solgaard) and MEMS fabrication class, meaning that EE321 will not be given any more. There are two versions of E341: 3-unit and 5-unit; the latter one has limited enrollment. Those who take 5-unit version will go through the process of a piezoresistive device in SNF. They are very likely to continue their projects in E342 by realizing the designs in the fab. So, basically the projects for 5-unit takers are pre-defined by MEMS faculty at Stanford (knowing that fabrication burns money.) Prof. Kenny also funds one project- energy scavenging devices. And as a result, I am fortunately in the 5-unit taker list.
I made my "semi"-presentation last quarter. We (me and the other two project partners) took two presentation slots to introduce the energy scavenging project to the entire group. Chandra, the senior partner, gave a generic discussion on the vibrational energy scavenger. Shingo and I shared one slot to discuss the piezoelectric and capacitive designs respectively. Our target is to scavenge the vibration energy in a car, maybe from engine, wheels, and so on. The challenge of this project is to design a low frequency mechanical structure via MEMS. Tom also wants us to reduce stress concentration in the structures as many existing designs have serious stress concentration issue that limits durability. I am thinking to use PDMS as the flexure material in capacitive design to meet the low frequency and durable requirements. Although there are certain ways to "deposit" metal on PDMS, the fabrication still sets limitations on the design configuration. As for a silicon-based design, encapsulation technique developed in Kenny's group provides high Q system, which is also promising and indispensable in this application.
I really want to thank you again and again for the effort to make my path such "easy" and "straight" at Stanford. There are always many students trying hard to get funding, join our group or even simply contact Prof. Kenny that turns out to be in vain. I am trying to move forward with a grateful mind. By the way, Tom never discusses the quals with me. I guess this probably because the funding for this project is one year currently. Do you think I shall ask Tom actively?
Wish you and your family happy and healthy,
Cathy
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