Co-sponsored by The Nanostructures Lab, The Tiny Tech Club and Techlink. 

Applying Macro Machine Experience to Dinky Designs

Professor Alexander Slocum

MIT - Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MacVicar Faculty Fellow

Director of the The Precision Engineering Research Group

Background Papers for Talk:

"High-Current Electrothermal Bistable MEMS Relay," Jin Qiu, Jeffrey. H. Lang 1 , Alexander H. Slocum,  Ralf Strümpler. Presented at the MEMS 2003 conference. 

"Precision Passive Mechanical Alignment of Wafers" Alexander H. Slocum, Alexis C. Weber

"Characterization and Fabrication of the NanoGate for Nanoscale Fluidic Research" James White, Alex Slocum, Jeffrey Lang, Professor of Electrical Engineering. Presented at NSF Conference. 

References for More Information: 

A. Slocum, “Precision Machine Design: Macromachine Design Philosophy and its Applicability to the Design of Micromachines”, IEEE Micro Electro Mechanical Systems ’92, Travemunde Germany, February 4-7, 1992, pp 37-42

 Fundamental principles are fun because in principle, they apply at all scales; hence deep knowledge of how large machines work can give a designer, engineer, or researcher keen insight when they explore the design space of the dinky, the tiny, the technologies of the future.  This talk will explore this idea in some depth using examples from Prof. Slocum's past and present, along with a glimpse into the future.  From precision grinding machines to kinematic couplings to the Nanogate, a device for molecular flow control, this should be a fun ride.

Dr. Slocum is author of the book Precision Machine Design, a key work in the field.

 "...you can only obtain it with blood, sweat, tears, and design."

Prof. Alexander Slocum earned his Ph.D. from MIT while simultaneously working from 1983-1985 at the National Bureau of Standards where he earned 12 superior service awards and a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal.  He has four dozen patents issued/pending and designs manufacturing equipment for the automotive, aerospace, semiconductor, and entertainment industries.  He has been involved in several manufacturing equipment company start-ups, and he has helped many different companies bring many different machine tools to the marketplace.  He has also been involved with 7 products that have been awarded R&D 100 awards, each for annually being one of one hundred most technologically significant new products.  

Alex is an inventor who uses his strong analytical background from his MIT education to create novel solutions to vexing problems.  His prime strategy is to identify fundamental problems industries are likely to face as existing technology runs out of room.  His general theme is precision engineering, and his overall goal is to invent precision building block components and design strategies that hopefully will become the core of future precision machines.  Examples include self compensating hydrostatic bearings, damping systems, and numerous types of kinematic couplings.  In the last 4 years he has been focusing on dinky designs for tiny technologies.

 He loves to do design from concept, to analysis, to details.  He also loves to build furniture and he loves hands-on activity from creating spreadsheets, to driving ProE, to making things in the shop.  His entire family practices martial arts and loves to ski, and Prof. Slocum and his oldest son also love to snowboard.  Prof. Slocum has been teaching design courses and doing machine design at MIT since 1986.

©2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology