Mechanical Engineering Faculty Profile:

Dr. Sarah Bergbreiter
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Joint Appointment with the Institute for Systems Research

2170 Glenn L. Martin Hall, Building 088
University of Maryland
College Park, MD  20742

Phone: 301.405.6506
Fax: 301.314.9477
Email: sarahb@umd.edu
Website

Research Interests

Microrobotics, micro-electro-mechanical systems, microactuators, soft robotics, robot locomotion, networked centimeter-scale robots, and millimeter-scale power systems.

Vita

Sarah Bergbreiter joined the University of Maryland, College Park in 2008 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Institute for Systems Research. She received her B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1999. After a short introduction to the challenges of sensor networks at a small startup company, she received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and 2007 with a focus on microrobotics. She received the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2008 and the NSF CAREER Award in 2011 for her research on engineering robotic systems down to sub-millimeter size scales. She also received the Best Conference Paper Award at IEEE ICRA 2010 for her work incorporating new materials into microrobotics.

Education

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2007
M.S.E.E. University of California, Berkeley, 2004
B.S.E. Princeton University, 1999

Selected Publications

• Gerratt, A. P., Balakrisnan, B. and Bergbreiter, S., “Batch microfabricated bidirectional dielectric elastomer actuators,” in Transducers, Beijing, June 5-9, 2011.
• Penskiy, I., Gerratt, A. P., and Bergbreiter, S., “Efficient electrostatic inchworm motors with simple control and high force density,” in Transducers, Beijing, June 5-9, 2011.
• Vogtmann, D. E., Gupta S. K., and Bergbreiter, S., “Multi-Material Compliant Mechanisms for Mobile Millirobots,” in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, May 9-13, 2011.
• Gerratt, A. P., Penskiy, I., and Bergbreiter, S., “SOI/elastomer process for energy storage and rapid release,” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, vol. 20, no. 10, p. 104011, 2010.
• Currano, L. J., Churaman, W., Rajkowski, J., Morris, C. J., Bergbreiter, S. “Nanoenergetic Silicon as a Thrust Actuator for Jumping Microrobots,” Hilton Head 2010 Workshop, June 6-10, 2010.
• Gerratt, A.P., Penskiy, I., Bergbreiter, S. “Integrated Silicon-PDMS Process for Microrobot Mechanisms,” ICRA 2010, Anchorage, AK, May 3-7, 2010.
• Hollar, S., Flynn, A., Bergbreiter, S., and Pister, K.S.J.**, "Robot Leg Motion in a Planarized-SOI, Two-Layer Poly-Si Process," Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, vol. 14, pp. 725-740, 2005.

Honors and Awards

2011 - NSF CAREER Award
2010 - IEEE ICRA Best Conference Paper Award
2008 - DARPA Young Faculty Award

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