Delivering Bio-Mems & Microfluidic Education Around Accessible Technologies

Electronic Systems are now being deployed in al-most all aspects of daily life as opposed to being confined to consumer electronics, computing, communication and control applications as was the case in the 90’s. One of the more significant growth areas is medical instrumentation, health care, bio-chemical analysis and environmental monitoring. Most of these applications will in the future require the integration of fluidics and biology within complex electronic systems. We are now seeing technologies emerging together with access services such as the FP6 “INTEGRAMplus” and “MicroBuilder” programs that offer competitive solutions for companies wishing to de-sign and prototype microfluidic systems. For successful deployment of these systems, a new breed of electronic engineers are needed that understand how to deliver bio-chemistry and living cells to transducers and integrate the required technologies reliably into robust systems. This paper will report on initial training initiatives now active under the INTEGRAMplus program