We are engaged in projects in projects to solve pressing problems in low-volume medical devices for pediatrics, recycling of rare earth materials, scalable connectomics and others.

Current research positions in Connectomics

What is connectomics?
A complete map of neural “wiring” in the human brain is the next big step in understanding human physiology. This will require equipment and instrumentation that enables high-rate sectioning of tissue with nanometer-level accuracy. Computational tools can track connections between neurons in these sections and recreate a map of how we are “wired” . Current technologies can not section with the requisite speed and accuracy. We are developing the world’s first high-speed continuous sectioning and handling machines (custom actuators, sensors, tooling, process parameters, etc…) .

You are a precision machine design and manufacturing research lab, what does this have to do with connectomics?
The fundamental definition of manufacturing is the conversion of material from one state to another. The aim of modern connectomics is to convert the material of a brain from physical material into a "product" set of correlated 1s and 0s. That defines practical connectomics as a manufacturing challenge. System scaling is the activity of converting artisanal/fabrication processes from low- to high volume systems. Modern connectomics is seeking to go from artisanal lab-scale efforts that have only produced ~ 1 mm3 of mapped tissue in decades, to ~ 10 liters of mapped tissue in years. That is a scale up on the order of 10^6. That defines practical connectomics as a scaled system design challenge. Precision engineering is required when the relative dimensional tolerance crosses the line of one part in 10^5. Connectomics deals with dimensional spans from ~ 10s of nanometers to ~ 1 decimeter. That is a relative tolerance of 10^7. This defines practical connectomics as a precision engineering challenge. The level of challenge in each is high, and so practical scalable connectomics desperately needs to leverage knowledge and practice from these fields.

1. Next generation physical ultramicrotome (blade-based)
- Research assistant: Position filled
- Fellowship student: Open position

2. Fundamentally new paradigm for sectioning - Ultramicrotome (laser-based)
- Research assistant: Position filled
- Fellowship student: Open position

3. Material handling - Capture of delicate neural tissue, machines to move and align tissue to imaging systems
- Research assistant: 1st position filled, 2nd position Open
- Fellowship student: Open position

4 . Tool changing and manufacturing system optimization
- Research assistant: Open position
- Fellowship student: Open position

Current research positions in pediatric medical devices

1. Design for Low-volume Medical Devices for Critical Pediatrics Applications
- Research assistant: Open position pending grant finalization
- Fellowship student: Open position

Current research positions in rare earth metal recycling

1. Design of equipment and process for rare-earth material recycling
- Research assistant: Open position pending grant finalization
- Fellowship student: Open position

Current research positions in precision alignment for high-volume manufacturing

1. Design of micron- and sub-micron precision alignment mechanisms for high-volume precision instruments
- Research assistant: Open position
- Fellowship student: Open position