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Petia Vlahovska
Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics (by courtesy) Mechanical Engineering
Northwestern University
Title: Harnessing Active Matter for Bioinspired Microrobots
Abstract: Bacteria and cells, such as neutrophils, exhibit directed motion and navigate complex environments in response to external cues. Creating an artificial system that mimics this behavior offers significant potential for developing autonomous microrobotic systems. In this talk, I will present an overview of our efforts to design active particles—entities that harvest energy from their environment and convert it into motion—emulating bacterial locomotion (e.g., the Run-and-Tumble behavior of E. coli), and collective dynamics (e.g., swarming, turbulent-like flows, directed motion). Our active particles are colloids that become motile through the Quincke effect, which causes them to spontaneously roll on a surface in the presence of a uniform electric field. Quincke 'rollers' demonstrate complex individual and collective dynamics, making them a promising model for uncovering design principles in autonomous systems powered by active particles.
Bio: Petia M. Vlahovska is a Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University. She received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Yale University (2003) and MS in Chemistry from Sofia University, Bulgaria (1994). Prior to joining Northwestern University, she was faculty at Dartmouth College and Brown University. Her research encompasses fluid dynamics, soft matter, and membrane biophysics. Prof. Vlahovska is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2019); she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2024), a Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2016), National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2009), and David Crighton Fellowship from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK (2004).