Shapiro and students finalists in Invention of the Year awards

Assistant Professor Benjamin Shapiro (AE/ISR) and his students Satej Chaudhary, Michael Daniel Armana and Roland Probst were finalists in the University of Maryland's 17th annual Invention of the Year awards, sponsored by the Office of Technology Commercialization. The awards are presented annually to honor outstanding inventions and inventors from the previous year.

Their invention, "Arbitrary and Simultaneous Control of Multiple Particles in Micro-Fluidic Systems," uses microscopic cameras and fiber optic systems in conjunction with sophisticated computer software to visually identify individual particles in a fluid. The scheme also calculates the precise movement of tiny actuators to direct fluid flow within the microfluidic system on a particle-by-particle basis.

—May 2004

Published May 2, 2004