Hands-on Workshop on Rapid Prototyping of Microfluidic Chips at Oliveira Lab

7 days ago

1 min read

The Oliveira Lab hosted the 3rd Hands-on Workshop on Rapid Prototyping of Microfluidic Chips last Saturday, bringing together students and researchers for a full day that took participants from a blank CAD sketch to a working microfluidics device.

The morning opened with introductory sessions led by Dr. Samuel M.D. Oliveira and our guest speaker Dr. João Costa of CNPEM, who joined from Brazil to discuss how microfluidics systems are transforming biological and biomedical research. Hannah Hobbs shared what she built and learned during a summer of research in the Oliveira Lab, and Tolulope Oyeniran covered the techniques behind rapid prototyping before leading a guided Fusion 360 design session.

The afternoon moved into the lab. Participants fabricated, assembled, and tested the chips they had designed that morning, working directly with the equipment used in ongoing microfluidics research. Every participant left with a device they built themselves.

Participants also toured the Oliveira Lab and JSNN facilities, seeing current projects and how design, fabrication, and experiment come together in practice.

As part of Oliveira Outreach, the workshop reflects the lab's commitment to making microfabrication accessible and hands-on, so that a biological question and the tool to answer it stay within reach of the same person.

We thank all participants, our speakers, and the organizing team for making the day a success.