Gift will allow MIT researchers to use artificial intelligence in a biomedical device
Researchers in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) have received a gift to advance their work on a device designed to position living cells for growing human organs using acoustic waves. The Acoustofluidic Device Design with Deep Learning is being supported by Natick, Massachusetts-based MathWorks, a leading developer of mathematical computing software. “One of the fundamental problems in growing cells is how to move and position them without damage,” says John R. Williams, a professor in CEE. “The devices we’ve designed are like acoustic tweezers.” Inspired by the complex and beautiful patterns in the sand made by waves, the researchers' approach is to use sound waves controlled by machine learning to design complex cell patterns. The pressure waves generated by acoustics in a fluid gently move and position the cells without damaging them. The engineers developed a computer simulator to create a variety of device designs, which were then fed...