Shahrzad Towfighian

Professor; Graduate Studies Director

Mechanical Engineering

Background

Towfighian’s research focuses on micro-electro-mechanical sensors/actuators (MEMS) and energy harvesting. Her research group develops mathematical models of electromechanical systems to simulate their behavior and to study the influence of parameters affecting their performance. She validates these mathematical models by making prototypes and characterizing their responses.

The common theme in her research is energy conversion and dynamics of micro-scale devices. She is particularly interested in the application of dynamical systems in biomedical devices.

Towfighian is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21, R01 and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants. In her recently funded NSF project, Towfighian is creating self-powered shock and vibration sensors by combining generators and micro-actuators. This combination enables detecting a threshold force and responding by automatic opening of a micro-switch. This capability enhances the speed and reliability of airbag deployment devices.

Her group also developed the smallest triboelectric nanogenerator that is compatible with the CMOS fabrication process and can tremendously expand MEMS sensor applications.

In a previous NSF project, Towfighian and her collaborator Miles explored a new way of capacitive sensing called repulsive sensors, which can revolutionize billions of miniature devices such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and MEMS microphones that suffer from instability, caused by electrostatic force.

For her NIH R01 grant, she investigates the self-powered load sensors for total knee replacements, which helps monitoring the joint health after replacement. This measurement system can be used as a self-awareness device to raise alerts when certain activities occur that may shorten the lifetime of the implant. This discovery can prevent revision surgeries that are common for total knee replacements.

Towfighian is a member of the Instrumentation and Systems Development Study Section (ISD) at the National Institute of Health.

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