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Individually addressable microscale robotic cilia have the potential to enable unprecedented control over microfluidic environments. They could be used to sort microscale particles, control chemical reactions, or transport viscoelastic materials. Artificial cilia could also be used to better our understanding of biological processes such as neurotransmitter transport in the brain and fluid clearing in the liver and lungs. Here, we report on the development of electrically actuated artificial cilia that pump fluid efficiently at the micron scale.

When is the last time you heard a compelling, interesting, and memorable research talk? Conferences are notorious for providing ample opportunity to see boring presentations of what could be important research. If you are reading this book, chances are that you (or your students) need to learn how to tell a better story.

Fifty years of Moore’s Law scaling in microelectronics have brought remarkable opportunities for the rapidly-evolving field of microrobotics. Electronic, magnetic, and optical systems now offer an unprecedented combination of complexity, small size, and low cost, and could readily be appropriated to form the intelligent core of robots the size of cells. But one major roadblock exists: there is no micron-scale actuator system that seamlessly integrates with semiconductor processing and responds to standard electronic control signals.

Magnetic materials provide a unique solution to a long-standing challenge in material science: the development of a scale-invariant technology whichuses simple building blocks to build smart, digital, and structurally complex materials.