When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Mo Mirvakili, PhD ’17, was deep into his research as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. Faced with limited access to lab facilities, he ingeniously transformed his bathroom into an experimental workspace. By laying a sheet of plywood across the bathtub to support power sources and measurement tools, he conducted groundbreaking research that eventually made its way into Science Robotics, one of the foremost journals in robotics.
While this experience illustrates creativity in the face of adversity, it also highlights a recurring challenge Mirvakili has faced—even in the world’s most well-funded labs: the necessity of building customized experimental equipment.
“My journey underscores a larger truth: with the right mixture of determination and ingenuity, we can achieve incredible feats,” Mirvakili states. “Many talented individuals lack lab access, yet possess brilliant ideas. We need to create pathways for them to realize their experimental aspirations.”
This mission sparked the inception of Seron Electronics, a venture launched by Mirvakili aimed at democratizing scientific research. Seron is dedicated to developing advanced scientific instruments that accurately source and measure electrical power, characterize materials, and integrate data into a user-friendly software platform.
By making complex experiments more achievable, Seron seeks to ignite a new wave of innovations across disciplines including microelectronics, renewable energy, optics, and biomedicine.
“Our ambition is to lead in delivering precision and affordability to researchers,” Mirvakili explains. “This vision caters not just to academia, but also to businesses, governmental agencies, nonprofits, and even high school students. With Seron’s tools, anyone can perform high-caliber experiments, independent of their background or resources.”
The Need for Constant Power
Mirvakili’s academic journey began with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering, followed by a PhD in mechanical engineering under the guidance of MIT Professor Ian Hunter. His research involved creating a class of high-performance thermal artificial muscles, including nylon artificial muscles. Throughout this work, he encountered the challenge of needing precise control over energy input, yet struggled to find an online solution.
“Although I had access to cutting-edge equipment in the lab, I often had to assemble various external tools to conduct my experiments,” he recalls.
Following his PhD, Mirvakili joined the lab of Institute Professor Bob Langer as a postdoc. There, he collaborated with Langer on innovative biomedical engineering challenges and noticed that researchers were frequently struggling with temperature control at the microscale for drug delivery devices.
This realization illuminated a universal dilemma: the demand for precise manipulation of electric current, voltage, and power. Mirvakili recognized that this need was echoed in his recent investigations into energy storage and solar cells. Engaging with global researchers at conferences confirmed the widespread nature of this challenge, prompting him to establish Seron Electronics.
Seron’s inaugural product line, the SE Programmable Power Platforms, empowers users to precisely source and measure targeted electrical quantities such as voltage, current, power, and charge. All of this is facilitated through an intuitive desktop application that minimizes signal interference.
This innovative equipment can be utilized to study semiconductor behaviors, actuators, and energy storage systems, or to charge batteries without compromising their efficiency.
Seron’s technologies also extend to materials performance evaluation, allowing for precise measurements of how various materials respond to defined electrical stimulation, as well as quality control for chips and components.
The practical applications are extensive, but Seron’s primary objective remains to accelerate innovation.
“The intuitive design of our systems significantly shortens result acquisition times,” Mirvakili says. “Setup takes less than five minutes, and it operates in a plug-and-play manner. Researchers have noted dramatic speed increases in their workflows.”
Exploring New Horizons
In a recent publication, coauthored with MIT research affiliate Ehsan Haghighat, Seron’s equipment supplied a consistent power output to a thermal artificial muscle integrated with machine learning, enabling it to exhibit a form of muscle memory. In another instance, a nonprofit research organization successfully utilized Seron’s devices to discover a sustainable sensor material they aim to commercialize.
Seron’s team has encountered unexpected applications of their technology and anticipates a surge of innovative uses following the planned release of a more affordable, portable version of their equipment this summer. Potential applications could include the creation of new bedside monitors capable of detecting diseases, as well as remote sensing technologies for field research.
Mirvakili highlights the beauty of Seron’s products lies in their capacity to enable researchers to explore without being restricted by equipment limitations. “Our team doesn’t need to envision every possible experiment; instead, we focus on offering robust scientific tools, allowing the research community to determine the most impactful applications,” he notes.
“With the affordability and portability of our new device, researchers will unlock endless possibilities,” Mirvakili concludes. “Anyone with a groundbreaking idea should be able to actualize it using our solutions. The spectrum of potential applications is simply limitless.”
Photo credit & article inspired by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
