#319: Micro-scale Surgical Robots, with Eric Diller

Dr. Diller received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, and Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. His work is enabling a new approach to non-invasive medical procedures, micro-factories and scientific tools. He does this by shrinking the mechanical and electrical components of robots to centimeter, millimeter or even micrometer size. He uses magnetic fields and other smart-material actuation methods to make mobile functional devices. Dr. Diller envisions a future where drug delivery and surgery can be done in a fast, painless and focused way, and where new materials and devices can be manufactured using swarms of tiny gripping, cutting, and sensing wireless robots.