Queens’ Engineering student wins Head of Department Prize

Malar Chellasivalingam has recently won the Head of Department prize in the Cambridge University Engineering Department 2020-21 ZEISS Photography Competition, with an optical image of the coupled MEMS resonators designed and fabricated in her PhD research.

Malar, an Engineering PhD student at Queens', successfully completed her PhD in April 2022 under the supervision of Professor Ashwin A. Seshia.

Professor Ashwin Seshia said:

Malar has presented on her research at numerous venues, including at STEM for Britain 2021, highlighting the impact of PM emissions on human health and the environment as well as outlining how engineers could play a role in addressing the monitoring challenge.

Malar’s PhD research focused on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) chip technology for sensing ultra-fine particles. MEMS technology enables tiny gravimetric mass balances etched from single-crystal silicon (and associated thin-film materials) to detect ultra-fine particles with high sensitivity. Malar studied an approach based on coupled MEMS resonators, in which the operation principle of vibration mode localization was employed to achieve highly sensitive detection of ultrafine particles and to passively compensate for common-mode effects on the output response caused by other environmental factors such as temperature.

Malar's research has been presented at prestigious international conferences, including the Joint Conference of the European Frequency and Time Forum and the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium in Orlando, Florida, in 2019, where she was nominated for the best paper award and the IEEE International Conference on Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) in Vancouver, Canada in January 2020, followed by the IEEE Sensors 2020 conference - the flagship international conference on sensors. In addition, she published a journal article in Sensors detailing her findings on applying MEMS sensors for detecting and monitoring ultra-fine particulates arising from combustion processes in diesel engines, which was highlighted as the cover article.

For more information on the competition winners, visit:

http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/revealed-winning-entries-department-s-2020-21-zeiss-photography-competition