Troy Dassler

"MicroExplorers: Bio-Inspired" is the winning project created by Dassler for students at Aldo Leopold Elementary School. In the project, students will look at nature to meet energy needs and introduce them to nature-inspired design. They will have the opportunity to explore nature's grand design and be inspired to solve two of society's greatest challenges - energy production and efficiency. Students will investigate how form follows function from the nano to the macro scale in nature. They will be led through various investigations where they will examine how nature creates super-hydrophobic structures, photonic structures that exhibit iridescence and bioluminescence, and macro structures that increase efficiency. The project will use the Weibel laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Students will examine surface structures through images taken from high-powered microscopes at the laboratory and create eco-friendly and efficient alternative energy power sources based on what they have learned throughout the project. Dassler will maintain a blog during the entire program. Dassler lives in Madison.