Presenters
Ravi Pandya, Microsoft Research
Ravi Pandya is a Principal Software Architect at Microsoft Research. He had a startup called Hyperchem which dealt with molecular mechanics and gave him his start in nanotechnology. He presented to Xanadu, where he met with Eric Drexler. Ravi started moving into genomics and biotech, and is currently working on an antigen map….
Tad Hogg, Institute of Molecular Manufacturing
Tad Hogg is an Institute of Molecular Manufacturing Research Fellow, and was a Member of the Research Staff at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Tad holds a PhD from Stanford and BS from Caltech, both in physics…
Tad presents an overview of the major issues stopping molecular machine development. There are three areas of progress for molecular machines – discovery, control of individual machines, and design behavior for large numbers of machines. The discovery process uses simulations to visualize machines we cannot yet build, and to use machine learning to design and fabricate conceptual machines. We have poor intuition for molecular machines with regard to thermal motion and viscous damping, making individual control difficult. For group control, swarm behavior is the dominant solution, and can be programmed or exist passively as a product of the nanobot design.