Juan Ren, Adarsh Krishnamurthy, Anwesha Sarkar and Aditya Balu received a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to build a new cyber-physical system that leverages recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning to lead to next-generation atomic force microscopy.
The problem: AFM is the best way to measure the nanomechanics of biological materials because it can apply precisely controlled force at desired locations in materials – and sense the sample response. But, right now, the technique relies on constant human monitoring and continual troubleshooting, limiting the platform’s potential.
The approach: Cyclone Engineering research team will develop and validate a novel closed-loop AFM framework, with AI-based sensing and characterizing, modeling interactions between the AFM probe and soft biological samples via physics-aware neural surrogates, and AFM navigation and control algorithms via real-time learning.
The impact: The work will expand the use of AFM into new areas of biochemical and biomedical sciences and engineering, going beyond live-cell AFM studies to impact other cyber-physical sectors like biomedical devices, materials and manufacturing.
Principal investigator: Juan Ren, associate professor of mechanical engineering
Co-principal investigators:
- Adarsh Krishnamurthy, associate professor of mechanical engineering and associate director, Translational AI Research Center
- Anwesha Sarkar, Harpole-Pentair assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering,
- Aditya Balu, data scientist, Translational AI Research Center
Funder: National Science Foundation Division of Computer and Network Systems. Award 2409359.