Sambeeta Das
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Sambeeta ‘Sam’ Das is an assistant professor at the University of Delaware in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Before joining the University of Delaware, Dr. Das was a postdoctoral researcher for three years at the University of Pennsylvania. She was part of the GRASP Lab where she worked on microrobotic control and application of microrobots in biological systems. She earned her Ph.D. at the Pennsylvania State University in 2016 and her doctoral research was on directing micro and nanomotors and their applications in lab-on-a chip devices. Prior to her doctoral studies, she earned her Masters with distinction from the University of London and her Bachelors in Physics from Presidency College, India. She is the recipient of multiple awards including a graduate fellowship from the Pennsylvania State University, the overseas research award fellowship from the government of United Kingdom, and the Science and Engineering Excellence Fellowship from the University of London.
EDUCATION
PhD, Pennsylvania State University, USA
MSc, University of London, UK
BSc, Presidency College, India
FACULTY EXPERTISE
Biomechanics
Fluid Mechanics
Materials Engineering
Nanotechnology
RESEARCH AREAS
Biomechanical Engineering
Clean Energy & Environment
Nanotechnology
Robotics & Controls
Current Team Members
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
David Rivas, Ph.D.
Email: drivas@udel.edu
Ph.D. in Physics, Johns Hopkins University
B.S. in Physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Research Interest: After working on experimental active matter physics for my graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, my work now focuses on creating, controlling, and studying other active colloids: microrobots. I hope to advance our work with microrobots in order to apply them in areas such as biomedicine or micromanipulation.
Sudipta Mallick, Ph.D.
Email: sudipta@udel.edu
Ph.D. in Biochemistry
M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering
B.Sc. in Biochemistry (Plant science)
Research Interest: I have acquired a deep knowledge in various nanoformulations for targeted delivery of therapeutic biomolecules (drug/gene) to the cancer cells. Nevertheless, I have hands on experience in synthetic as well as bio-applications of metal nanoparticles, polymer nanoparticles, liposomal formulations, peptide nano-formulations. Currently, I am working on Microrobotics-based targeted delivery and organoid engineering.
Srikanta Debata, Ph.D.
Email: srikantadebata01@gmail.com
Research Interest: My research interests are in soft matter and behavior of active particles in solutions
Graduate Students
Max Sokolich, Ph.D. candidate
Email: sokolich@udel.edu
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Mathematics Minor), University of Delaware
Research Interest: Microrobotic Control Theory, Synthetic Biology, Micromanipulation and Manufacturing, Nanofabrication, Physical Computing, Optics, Machine Vision and Machine Learning.
Yanda Yang, Ph.D. candidate
Email: robotyyd@udel.edu
Research Assistant, Southern University of Science and Technology
M.Sc. in Robotics, University of Bristol
B.E. in Measurement and Control Technology and Instrument, Beijing Jiaotong University
Research Interest: I am interested in developing optimal control algorithms for microrobot systems, and deep reinforcement learning for microrobot navigation and localization in complex, unknown environment.
Fatma Ceren Kirmizitas, Ph.D. student
Email: ceren@udel.edu
M.Sc. in Molecular Biology ang Genetics, Yildiz Technical University, Turkey
B.Sc. in Molecular Biology ang Genetics, Yildiz Technical University, Turkey
Research Interest: I worked with both targeted and non-targeted solid lipid nanoparticles for gene delivery to cancer cells. From the knowledge I gained, I decided to turn my route to drug delivery studies with a new scope and carrier systems, with microrobots. I am currently interested in microrobots and teir biomedical applications.
Binzhi Wu, Ph.D. student
Email: benjiji@udel.edu
B.S. in Chemical Engineering (Biochemical Engineering & Economics Minor), University of Delaware
Research Interest: I joined the SMT Lab in early 2022. My current project focuses on studying the behavior of microrobots in confined patterns and PDMS-based microfluidic devices. I enjoy doing research since I like the feeling of satisfaction I get every time I solve a difficulty. I am interested in manipulating bio-nanorobots and using them in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Subrahmanyam Cherukumilli, Ph.D. student
Email: scchs@udel.edu
B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering, Andhra University
Research Interest: My research interests are design, and studying the motion of the microrobots under various actuation systems.
Undergraduate Students
Former Team Members
- Zameer Hussain Shah – PosDoc
- Rocky Li – B.S. Mechanical Engineering
- Austin Maaddi – (09/2019-02/2020) – B.S. Mechanical Engineering
- Chaewoon Kim – (Fall 2019) – B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Sambeeta Das Lab 