CANCELLED**Self-assembly and Accelerating Stochastic Algorithms

My group studies the design, synthesis and properties of nanostructures for future computer and sensor systems. Specifically, we use DNA self-assembly, a bottom-up fabrication technique that can be used to achieve molecular scale resolution, to build experimental devices which we then characterize using a variety of tools from nanoscience. Connecting this research to the real world requires us to adopt a broad and vertical research approach that employs computational modeling and analytical theory to demonstrate how the unique properties of the systems we discover, and engineer, can best be used. Work in this area of nanoscience is exciting, cross-cutting and requires students to engage in subjects far beyond traditional areas of computer science and engineering.

Self-assembly is a bottom-up fabrication technique that can be used to achieve molecular scale resolution. Some of the images to the right are atomic force microscope (AFM) images of several nanostructures that we have fabricated in our lab. The goal is to use these structures to integrate active nanoelectronic devices into a fully self-assembled circuit technology - and to study the new forms of computer architecture that the technology enables. To do this we have adopted a broad and vertical research approach to cover topics in the synthesis and design of DNA nanostructures, nanoscale device and circuit modeling, and studies of emerging computer architectures. We are also interested in expanding the domain within which computing can be applied, specifically into biological and physical environments.

Chris Dwyer received his B.S. in computer engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1998, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000 and 2003, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor at Duke University having joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in mid-2004, and is a co-founder of Parabon NanoLabs, Inc., an applied DNA nanotechnology company. He was awarded a Young Investigator Award from the Army Research Office in 2008 for which he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He has served on various advisory panels for the DoD and the ODNI as well as participated in the DARPA CSSG. Dwyer is a Senior Member of the ACM and IEEE and was elected a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences in 2011. In 2014 Dwyer was awarded a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (NSSEFF). His areas of research include DNA self-assembly and applications that expand the computational domain with a focus on device-to-systems design, evaluation, and synthesis.