Information About

Chang Liu Professor of Mechanical Engineering Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Northwestern University 2145 Sheridan Road, Rm. L288  Evanston, IL 60208-3111, USA TEL: 847-467-0701 FAX: 847-491-3915 changliu@northwestern.edu link to research site PhD California Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical engineering, 1996 MS California Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical engineering 1991 BS Tsinghua University, Department of Precision Instrument 1990

Honors and Awards

• Ou-You Yi Award, 1996.
• National Science Foundation, CAREER Award for young investigators, 2000
• Xerox Award for Faculty Research, College of Engineering, University of Illinois, 2004
• Faculty Associate, Center for Advanced Studies, University of Illinois
• Willett Faculty Scholar Award, College of Engineering, University of Illinois, 2005-2009.
• UIUC Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, Fall 2001.

Research

Chang Liu's research group conducts interdisciplinary research at the interface of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biology, and materials. Our group's primary research expertise and endeavors lie in the following areas: microfabrication technology, nanofabrication, bioinspired sensors, and smart integrated systems.  

Our group develops novel and efficient fabrication technologies at the microscale and the nanoscale.  Often we involve both traditional semiconductor materials as well as non-conventional polymer materials.  We focus on developing MEMS, as well as nanofabrication and nanopatterning technologies.  Further, we apply the micro- and nanoscale fabrication expertise to enable new devices and, in turn, new systems and applications.  

We are developing biologically inspired sensors - sensors with functions and/or structures based on inspiration from biology.  Biology offers exquisite examples of sensors and sensory intelligence.  These have been the subjects of observation of biology for hundreds of years.  With the advent of micro and nanotechnology, it now becomes possible to build engineering-equivalent of biological sensors.  Through bioinspired sensors research, we seek to advance engineering as well as deepen understanding of complex biological systems.  

Professor Liu's multidisciplinary research program centers on MEMS and devices. His research covers wide length scales (from nano to micro to macro) and is vertically integrated (materials to devices to systems.

For example, our group is developing artificial haircell sensors that mimic the haircell sensor, widely found in many animals and perform a large variety of functions. The biological haircell, a common neuronal mechanoreceptor, is responsible for a wide variety of sensing in different animal species.  Haircells are responsible for hearing (human cochlea), flow sensing (insects, spiders, and fish), vibration sensing (insects), equilibrium sensing (human inner ear), and joint angle sensing (insect), to name a few examples.  We are developing artificial hairs using microfabrication technology and investigating methods of increasing their functionality, increasing performance, and reducing packaging complexity.

In addition, my group is developing massively parallel scanning probe based nanolithography technology and microfluid lab-on-chip systems for nanofabrication and biochemical detection. We work closely with faculty members at the international institute of nanotechnology.

In the Classroom

Prof. Liu is passionate about teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students to reach full potentials and become future leaders. He teaches in both Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering areas. The courses he has covered in the past include solid-state devices, thermal transfer, electromagnetic waves, microfabrication, and MEMS. He is the author of a undergraduate textbook "Foundations of MEMS", published by Prentice-Hall in 2006. At Northwestern, he is planning to teach classes on microfabrication/MEMS (in Mechanical Engineering) and on electronics circuits (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science).

Selected publications

Yingchen Yang, Jack Chen, Jonathan Engel, Saunvit Pandya, Nannan Chen, Craig Tucker, Sheryl Coombs, Douglas L. Jones, and Chang Liu, "Distant Touch Hydrodynamic Imaging with an Artificial Lateral Line", The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 103, No. 50, pp. 18891-18895, 2006.

Saunvit D Pandya, Yingchen Yang, Douglas Jones, Jonathan M Engel, and Chang Liu, "Multisensor Processing Algorithms for Underwater Dipole Localization and Tracking using MEMS Artificial Lateral Line Sensors" EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing, (Special issue on multi sensor processing for signal extraction and applications"

J. Engel, J. Chen, C. Liu, D. Bullen, "Polyurethane rubber all-polymer artificial hair cell sensor", IEEE/ASME Journal of MEMS, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 729-736, 2006.

Chang Liu, Foundations of MEMS, Prentice Hall, August 2005.

J. Engel, J. Chen, Z. Fan, and C. Liu, "Polymer Micromachined Multimodal Tactile Sensors," Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, vol. 117, no. 1, pp. 50-61, January 3, 2005.

Z. Fan, J. Engel, J. Chen, and C. Liu, "Parylene Surface Micromachined Membranes for Sensor Applications," IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 13(3), pp. 484-490, 2004.

J. Chen, Z. Fan, J. Zou, J. Engel, and C. Liu, "Two Dimensional Micromachined Flow Sensor Array for Fluid Mechanics Studies," Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 85-97, pp. 1067-1075, April 2003

Sung-Hoon Kim, Jonathan Engel, Chang Liu, and Douglas L. Jones, "Texture classification using a polymer-based MEMS tactile sensor" Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 15 (2005) 912-920.

Xuefeng Wang and Chang Liu, "Multifunctional probe array for nano patterning and imaging," Nano Letters, Vol. 5, No. 10, pp. 1867-1872, Oct 2005.

Kashan A. Shaikh, Kee Suk Ryu, Edgar D. Goluch, Jwa-Min Nam, Juewen Liu, C. Shad Thaxton, Thomas N. Chiesl, Annelise E. Barron, Yi Lu, Chad A. Mirkin, Chang Liu, "A Modular Microfluidic Architecture for Integrated Biochemical Analysis," PNAS, vol. 102, no. 28, pp. 9745-9750, July 2005.