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Electrical Engineering Major Lucas Miller Publishes Research

Lucas Miller, a junior electrical engineering major from Nescopeck, Pennsylvania, has co-authored and published a research paper in Biosensors, an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal on the technology and science of biosensors published monthly online by MDPI. 

In addition to being an EE major, Lucas has dual minors in Mathematics and Computer Engineering. He has been working with Wei Du, assistant professor of electrical engineering, with whom he published the paper alongside Feng Zhao, associate professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University.

The paper, titled “Numerical Study of Graphene/Au/SiC Waveguide-Based Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor,” was a result of a research project that Miller joined in July 2021. He worked approximately 20-25 hours per week, scaling back to five hours once classes began.

The results demonstrate that the graphene/Au/SiC waveguide SPR sensor has a promising use in portable biosensors for chemical and biological sensing applications, such as detection of water contaminations (RI = 1.33~1.34), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and glucose (RI = 1.34~1.35), and plasma and white blood cells (RI = 1.35~1.36) for human health and disease diagnosis.

According to Miller, “I’ve learned so much about the R&D process since joining this project and can’t wait to continue working alongside Dr. Du to further develop and realize this device.”

The current goal is to repair the thin film deposition machine in the microfabrication lab, which would enable them to fabricate the device in-house and perform real-life experiments. 

To find out more:

Abstract: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/11/455
PDF Version: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/11/455/pdf