Indian designs droplet computer from water

BY A STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON, DC — A Stanford University assistant professor and his students have designed and built a unique computer that operates using the physics of moving water droplets.

Led by Indian American scientist Manu Prakash, the team successfully modeled a functional computer that uses water instead of electrons to send data.

Theoretically, due to the machine’s “universal nature,” the droplet computer can perform any operation that an electronic computer can, albeit at drastically slower speed.
The creation joins his expertise in manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a basic element of computer science, an operating clock.

“We already have digital computers to process information. Our goal is not to compete with electronic computers or to operate word processors on this,” stated Prakash. “Our goal is to build a completely new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter. Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well. We have just made this possible at the mesoscale.”

Born in Meerut, India, Prakash earned a B.Tech. in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur before moving to the United States. He did his master’s and PhD in applied physics at MIT before founding the Prakash Lab at Stanford, according to his profile on the university’s website.

Prakash gained a certain measure of academic fame by delivering a TED talk in March 2014 about 50-cent microscopes that fold like origami. His ultra-low-cost, “print-and-fold” paper microscope won a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation in 2012.

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Scientist Manu Prakash