Binil Starly, a recent MEM Ph.D. graduate, has earned the prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for his project entitled: "CAREER: Bio-Manufacturing Heterogeneous Multi-scale 3D Matrices for Engineering Living Tissue Systems”.  While studying at Drexel, Binil was adivsed by Dr. Wei Sun.

This project seeks to investigate the process variables that will enable the assembly of multi-scale patterned structures through the hybrid application of nozzle deposition and near field
electro-spinning manufacturing processes. These structures will be used to advance the scientific community’s knowledge on the behavior of living cells when under the influence of spatially patterned structures containing both sub-micron to meso-scale 3D dimensional features. The development of the proposed manufacturing platform will enable the fabrication of heterogeneous structures at multiple length scales, with applications in engineering living tissue systems and in-vitro tissue analog systems. The educational plan of this project include participation in the Oklahoma STARBASE organization targeted for K-12 students and the formation of a hovercraft club for freshman engineering students to impart vertically integrated design and manufacturing based technology education.