Dr. Neikirk is currently concentrating on the use of IC fabrication techniques for the development of new transducers. Recent work on chemical sensors has led to the development of a new class of devices (an "electronic tongue") that may have application in fields ranging from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring. Another area of research in our group is the development of sensors for "structural health monitoring," including work on new passive rf tags for detection of damage in buildings and bridges that have been subjected to extreme conditions. One application would be the detection of earthquake-induced weld failure in steel-framed buildings. For civil structural health monitoring, a modification of existing electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology should produce extremely low cost devices capable of wireless transmission of binary information about the state of the underlying structure. Optically interrogated pressure sensors and magnetic proximity sensors have also been developed. Dr. Neikirk has also done extensive work on the high frequency electromagnetic properties of integrated circuit interconnects and microwave transmission lines.