The 21st in the series of Hilton Head Workshops on the science and technology of solid-state sensors, actuators, and microsystems took place from June 2 – 6, 2024 at the Sonesta Resort on Hilton Head Island, SC. This exciting multidisciplinary event has occurred biennially since 1984, and this year we observed the 40th anniversary of Hilton Head by celebrating Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and microsystems successes over the past 40 years. Additionally, we challenged the community to look ahead to the challenges and possibilities for our field in the next 40 years. Hilton Head Island, the beachfront workshop hotel, and the casual, comfortable, seaside environment with nearly all meals included allows for relaxed exchanges, collegial interactions, and many fruitful discussions. The Hilton Head Workshop has historically been a regional meeting for professionals living in North or South America as well as past attendees of previous Hilton Head Workshops. Since 2020, the meeting has been open to international colleagues beyond the Americas.
The Hilton Head Workshop draws up to 500 academic, industry, and government participants from diverse engineering and scientific backgrounds, including chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, biology, and bioengineering. Previous workshops have provided a highly interactive forum for researchers to present and discuss recent advances in microfabrication technologies for sensing and actuation devices and microsystems for physical, chemical, and biological applications. Emerging from a global pandemic and tumultuous few years, Hilton Head 2022 focused on “Preparation and Prevention: Tackling our Grand Challenges,” which explored the potential for MEMS to impact a variety of global issues and grand challenges and inspired our community while encouraging new collaborations and ideas.
With a theme of “40 years of MEMS successes and looking ahead to the next 40 years”, HH 2024 had a strong showing of over 300 meeting attendees, with a meeting record of nearly 50 participants from outside the U.S.A. The workshop had robust participation from MEMS and microsystems experts from industry, academia, and government labs, and the technical program committee (TPC) and workshop organizing committees comprised diverse representatives to develop an exciting and impactful program that began well in advance of the workshop itself. Thanks to significant support from numerous universities, companies, and government institutions represented at Hilton Head, we were able to provide an unprecedented amount of financial support to all student presenters.
Hilton Head 2024 kicked off with two parallel Sunday Workshops: MEMS Know Howe and Small-Scale Robots: From One To A Swarm. MEMS Know Howe honored the incredible contributions of one of the original pioneers of the field, Prof. Roger Howe of Stanford University, while Small-Scale Robots tackled the latest advances in the exciting field of MEMS robots. Throughout the week, daily featured keynote speakers brought breadth and depth to our discussion of challenges and opportunities for MEMS and allied technologies, with topics including “Agricultural Leaf and Soil Sensors”, “Hybrid Low-Loss Integrated Photonics” and the “Impact of MEMS at the Forefront of our Energy Future”. To complement these topics, a panel of experts tackled challenges and issues around transitioning MEMS technologies from universities to industry. In addition, the program included invited speakers from within the MEMS industry, who gave inspiring talks celebrating the success of several MEMS products used in a vast array of applications.
On Tuesday afternoon, we held three special events: to commemorate 40 years of the workshop taking place in Hilton Head, a local historian educated the MEMS community on the fascinating history of the island. Additionally, two parallel sessions addressed “Navigating the Transition to Industry” (SEMI/MSIG) and “Dealing with Personal and Professional Stress” (The Academic Life). On Wednesday evening, the Rump Session provided a robust discussion around MEMS history and trivia as well as a “40th birthday celebration” for the workshop.
The Hilton Head Workshop is a single-session meeting with ample time allotted for discussion of each paper, and with blocks of unscheduled time to encourage informal interactions among participants. Monday through Thursday, HH2024 held multiple oral presentation and contributed poster sessions, the proceedings of which will be published in the technical digest and made available on sponsor Transducer Research Foundation (TRF)’s website in 2025.
MEMS technology, devices, and systems have already revolutionized our world – from health care to the environment, communication, transportation, and numerous other areas. Many of our successful accomplishments also complement National Academy of Engineering (NAE) pursuits toward identifying and addressing Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century. We hope the Hilton Head 2024 Workshop presentations and discussions will further encourage our students, researchers, and industry colleagues to team up collaboratively around today’s grand challenges and look ahead at what can drive the field in the next 40 years. Our hope is that we, as the device and technology community, will contribute significantly through active participation, mentoring, and inclusiveness to better serve people and our planet in the future.
We look forward to seeing you at Hilton Head 2026!
