DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Biomedical Sr. Design Project

 

Robotic Guide

The medical definition of blindness is a condition for the loss of vision due to physiological or neurological factors. It is also referred to a condition in which vision cannot be corrected with prescribed glasses or contact lenses.

There are a variety of different causes for blindness.  These include age-related degeneration, disease, genetic defects, poisoning, and eye injuries caused by physical or environmental factors. This condition has been one of the leading symptoms that were inflicted by negative physiological or physical influence to the eye. Because of this, it causes traumatic impacts to the emotional state of the patient, which produce severe inconvenience to their daily lifestyle.

 

Need

  One of the most significant issues faced by visually impaired individuals is navigation in an unfamiliar environment. 

In order to address this need, our proposed project is to program and build a robot that is capable of simple obstacle avoidance as well as self-navigation along a previously programmed path.

 

 Jonathan Lui, Faculty

 View the group project eportflio HERE


Here are links to some of our other group project ePortfolios -

 

 

BME 441: Senior Design II - Non-Electronic Blood Pressure Assist Device

 Engineering World Health (EWH) is an organization that promotes the introduction of health care technologies in developing countries. One of the ways this organization approaches the general goal of improving health care within these communities is through addressing their most pertinent needs with appropriately designed technological equipment. One of these pertinent needs is a non electronic method of taking blood pressure measurements without a stethoscope.

 

As a group within Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University we are dedicated to work that is aligned with the goals of EWH. Our expertise can be instrumental in developing practical solutions for a variety of health issues faced by organizations such as EWH.

 

Lab-on-a-chip

 

Tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis) can be found in nearly 2 billion people worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, only 5-10% of people infected with tuberculosis show recognizable symptoms. The inactive form of tuberculosis can still be spread through the air and hence, non-symptomatic individuals can unknowingly infect others. Untreated hosts carrying tuberculosis will on average infect 10-15 people in one year. Africa and Southeast Asia combine for 65% of the total 9.4 million new cases of TB in 2009. In Africa, tuberculosis is particularly dangerous due to the high rates of HIV prevalence in TB cases. Nearly 2 million people die every year from tuberculosis despite its being fully treatable. In order to effectively reduce the prevalence of tuberculosis in these areas, we must be able to treat the disease faster than it spreads. This is a multistep process that necessitates population screening for the presence of the tuberculosis bacteria, followed by containment and treatment. Our company is proposing a device that can detect tuberculosis bacteria with high sensitivity and at a low cost per individual tested. This device is intended to be used in the screening process to test large populations. Current detection methods require at least 24-48 hours to give positive results. In the highest prevalence countries, full diagnosis is too time consuming and expensive. With our device, agencies like World Health Organization will be able to filter the population requiring diagnosis for tuberculosis down to a manageable size.

 


Biodesign

In order for for the mechanical signals, delivered via the oscillating plate, to inhibit fat accumulation and enhance bone growth, it has to ensure the compliance of the users with its daily use. A study done by Dr. Rubin has shown low compliance (~44%) when children with disabling diseases were asked to use the oscillating plate over a specific period of time (10 min/day for ~1 year) (1). In other words, getting children, particularly 7-16 years old, to comply with the daily use of the product is elusive. However, our consumers will have the luxury of being entertained by playing video games, while simultaneously getting treated (via the clinically used oscillating plate), which is predicted to increase the compliance rate to ~80%.


BME 441 - Portable Microscopy Group

Our Quality Function Deployment diagram below conveys the importance of our design having a low learning curve and high resolution since the feature size we are attempting to measure is on the order of a few microns in length. Ability to image bacterial contour adds novelty to our design for a screening device because a later project can involve developing algorithms which enable to detect contour, further increasing specificity. The customer needs demanded for an easy to use instrument which weighed heavily in favor of having a low learning curve. Since we aim to make this product globally applicable for large scale screening, the ease to train technicians is a required characteristic of our design. The ability to store data was also weighed as an important characteristic of our design, particularly because we will be using digital imaging to detect tuberculosis.

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.