The major research interests of our group are the design, fabrication, characterization and applications of various active nanostructures such as nanofibers, nanotubes, nanojunctions and nanotrees. The active materials currently under exploration include piezoelectric (lead zirconate titanate or PZT), piezoresistive or conductive (indium tin oxide or ITO), thermal electric (both bismuth telluride and complex oxides) and photovoltaic materials (titanium oxide or TiO2). The targeted applications of the various nanostructures developed are acoustic sensors for structural health monitoring, medical devices for thrombus retrieving, nanoacoustic waves for circulating cancer cell screening, chemical sensors for various gases and explosives, biosensors for stroke diagnostics, and energy scavenging involving mechanical-electric, thermoelectric, optoelectric and chemical-electric energy conversions. The devices are at both the microscale (MEMS) and nanoscale (NEMS) using micro- and nanofabrication processes.