Bees are magical. They collect nectar from flowers, remove much of the nectar’s moisture by flapping their wings, and then regurgitate this nectar into combs to produce one of nature’s most precious wonders—honey.

Like bees, my students work at the intersection of nature, art, and science, drawing on their experiences in diverse fields of science and engineering and also their diverse cultural backgrounds, much as the bees draw nectar from a host of different flowers. They then apply their minds, hearts, and hands to create unique micro- and nano-scale mechanically adaptive electromechanical systems for human health monitoring—their scientific “honey.”

The seven honeycombs in this exhibit represent work created by the students in my MAS 810 Decoders 1.2 class, where each student draws upon his or her artistic/personal inspiration for a unique device design: a grandmother’s face, an ultrasound image of an infant son, or a beautiful butterfly.

Whether the result is a novel, stretchable device for ultrasound imaging, a wearable strain sensor for measuring your hand’s tremors seamlessly, or an implantable, remotely controllable, miniaturized neural drug delivery system for studying the underlying mechanism of Parkinson’s disease, these conformable devices demonstrate the benefits to society made possible when we channel our deeply personal and artistic inspirations into our scientific inquiry.