Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at
Stanford, and his students have developed a synchronous computer that operates
using the unique physics of moving water droplets. Their goal is to design a
new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical
matter.
(June 8, 2015) Computers
and water typically don't mix, but in Manu Prakash's lab, the two are one and
the same. Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford, and
his students have built a synchronous computer that operates using the unique
physics of moving water droplets.
The computer is nearly a decade in the making, incubated
from an idea that struck Prakash when he was a graduate student. The work
combines his expertise in manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a
fundamental element of computer science – an operating clock.