Minjun Kim, Ph.D.
Professor，Department of Mechanical Engineering
Southern Methodist University,
mjkim@lyle.smu.edu
Biography:
Dr. Minjun Kim is presently the Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor of En-gineering at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Southern Methodist Universi-ty. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University in Korea and Texas A&M University, respectively. Dr. Kim completed his Ph.D. degree in Engineering at Brown University, where he held the prestigious Si-mon Ostrach Fellowship. Following his graduate studies, Dr. Kim was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Rowland Institute in Harvard University. He joined Drexel University in 2006 as Assistant Professor and was later promoted to Professor of Me-chanical Engineering and Mechanics. Dr. Kim has been exploring biological transport phenomena including cellular/molecular mechanics and engineering in novel nano/microscale architectures to produce new types of nanobiotechology, such as na-nopore technology and nano/micro robotics. His notable awards include the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2008), Drexel Career Development Award (2008), Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award (2009), Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2010), Alexander von Humboldt Fel-lowship (2011), KOFST Brain Pool Fellowship (2013 & 2015), Bionic Engineering Outstanding Contribution Award (2013), Louis & Bessie Stein Fellowship (2008 & 2014), ISBE Fellow (2014), ASME Fellow (2014), Top10 Netexplo Award (2016), KSEA & KOFST Engineer of the Year Award (2016), IEEE Senior Member (2017), Sam Taylor Fellowship (2018), and Gerald J. Ford Research Fellowship (2018).
Topic title：Magnetically
Actuated Millibots and Modular Robots for Self-Assembling and Biomanufacturi
Abstract：
This talk will
introduce an innovative reconfigurable modular robotic system which controls
miniature components that can be actively assembled and disassembled on
command. This type of system could potentially improve the robustness and
controllability of small-scale manufacturing. The base components are miniature
cubes that contain permanent magnets. They are actuated using an external
magnetic field generated via a three axis Helmholtz coil system. The cubes can
achieve different motion patterns such as pivot walking or rolling. Our project
involves designing and fabricating scalable modular subunits using 3D printing.
A set of design rules for the cubes has been defined. Algorithms to control the
magnetic subunits have been studied. The issues addressed by this talk are at the interface of small-scale robotics, control
theory, material science, and bioengineering, and hold exciting prospects for
fundamental research with the potential for diverse applications.
