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Thank you for visiting the NU MedX (MED-X) Lab, where advanced engineering research is conducted with focus on applications in medicine and health. Our interests in medicine and health include medical sensors, sensor-rich systems, patient care technology, and disease detection. Our current projects include smart robotic surgery systems, smart tools for non-invasive cardiac surgery, smart skin for prosthesis, training systems for medical doctors, and biochips for medical diagnosis.

Medicine and health are important for our society, especially as the aging population grows in the US, world population increases, and the health-care systems are challenged financially. Our work is aimed at increasing the quality of health care, reducing the cost, and enhancing access to health care by individuals.

The development of sensors is crucial for such vision.  On the device side, we are developing biologically inspired sensors - sensors with functions, structures or performance based on inspiration from biology.  Biology offers exquisite examples of sensors and sensory intelligence.  These have been the subjects of observation of biology for hundreds of years.  With the advent of micro and nanotechnology, it now becomes possible to build engineering-equivalent of biological sensors.  Through bioinspired sensors research, we seek to advance engineering as well as deepen understanding of complex biological systems.  Examples include artificial haircell sensors, active haircell sensors, multimodal tactile sensor skin, and artificial lateral line sensors.

Our group develops novel and efficient fabrication technologies at the microscale and the nanoscale.  Often we involve both traditional semiconductor materials as well as non-conventional polymer materials.   

The group is organized under  Dr. Chang Liu, holding joint faculty positions in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering departments.  Members of the group come from many interdisciplinary background, including EE, ME, BioEngr, Material Science, and medicine.  We collaborate widely with people from many different fields, including animal biology, materials, signal processing, control, integrated circuit, fluid mechanics, chemistry, and nanotechnology.

Position Openings

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