A Cullen College researcher has made international news with his creation of an optical lens that can be placed on a smartphone camera to serve as a microscope.
Wei-Chuan Shih, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his research group engineered the lens by accident when experimenting with the application of heat on a substance called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). “It was quite an accident," said researcher Yu-Lung Sung in a CNBC article about the research. "We stumbled upon the fact that these droplets have a very good curvature for lenses."
PDMS is a material that hardens when heat is applied. The lenses are dropped on a preheated surface to cure; curvature (and, thusly, magnification) depends on how long and hot the PDMS is heated.
Shih’s team’s research has been published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics and is now being publicized by CNBC, a world leader in business news providing coverage to 371 million homes worldwide.
Read the full CNBC article here.