Abstract:

The promise of wearable sensors for democratizing healthcare access has been constrained by the need for sophisticated fabrication infrastructure, specialized expertise, and capital-intensive processes generally unavailable in the resource-limited settings such platforms are intended to serve. Advances in additive manufacturing (AM) are enabling a fundamentally different paradigm whereby the fabrication tools themselves become portable, rapid, and accessible, which in turn allows wearable sensing platforms to be prototyped and produced at the point-of-need. Here, we showcase this vision through two recent examples of complementary innovation pathways: enhanced laser-induced graphene methodologies that achieve electrochemical sensor performance and feature resolution previously unattainable through conventional laser processing, and 3D-printed wearable microfluidic platforms that collapse prototyping timelines from weeks to hours while expanding the design space from planar to fully volumetric architectures. We highlight how this approach to fabricate monolithic devices featuring true 3D channel geometries enables concepts in other areas, such as acoustophoretic particle manipulation in polymer substrates, a capability previously limited to rigid glass or silicon devices. Together, these advances illustrate how AM technologies move beyond mere cost reduction to enable production of responsive, locally adapted diagnostic technologies that can evolve as rapidly as the health challenges they address.

Biosketch:

Tyler Ray is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering with an appointment in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at icinJohn A. Burns School of Mede (JABSOM) at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa. He received his BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of South Carolina and his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ray received his postdoctoral training as at Northwestern University in the Rogers Research Group. Ray is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award (2023), was named both a Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2024) and an Emerging Leader of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2026), and is currently a NIH COBRE research project leader. Professor Ray’s research focus is at the intersection of materials science, advanced manufacturing, and wearable sensing.

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/25980312865787?p=W3ajXuu978jZU18OHO

Meeting ID: 259 803 128 657 87

Passcode: Lx2nJ9u5