Dr. Tan Receives Educational Grant from SPIE

SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering, has awarded the ECE department at MSU an educational grant to develop a senior Capstone design program in the area of smart materials and systems. This program, proposed by Assistant Professor Xiaobo Tan, aims to promote the awareness and interest of undergraduate students in the interdisciplinary field of smart materials through innovative design projects. One design project in Fall 2005, to be sponsored by the SPIE award and the Smart Microsystems Laboratory at MSU, is to develop a mobile sensor platform using a biomimetic swimming robot propelled by an artificial muscle actuator. Such a platform will have potential in a wide range of civil and military applications such as environmental monitoring and control, and surveillance in enemy water.