When your construction materials are measured not in yards or inches but in mere atoms, a host of new challenges enter in—for one, how do you manipulate something when you can barely see it? Solving those thorny issues is the task taken up by Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. Bassiri-Gharb has pioneered methods of using nanoscale ferroelectric materials to build microelectromechanical systems, such as the one seen here, for use as sensors and actuators. Instead of bricks and mortar, she builds these using electron beam lithography, nano-imprint and other cutting-edge techniques.