Engineering Commons^™

Blood Glucose Predictor, Jessica Patterson

Electrical Engineering

For my senior project, I perform data analysis using statistical methods to determine body metrics that correlate with blood glucose levels. Working with Dr. Tina Smilkstein, I take repeat measurements from 6 different volunteers to establish trends in bodily metric data. The data taken includes weight, body fat, pulse rate, VO2, blood glucose, blood pressure, hours slept, and quality of sleep. Using these values, I use the program MiniTab to view results.

A few examples of correlations with blood glucose found in this project are:

• Systolic blood pressure for females had a regression line of 124.0 -0.3366*Blood Pressure. This indicates …

Single-Cell Impedance Spectroscopy, David Paul Lange

Master's Theses

Impedance spectroscopy (IS) is an important tool for cell detection and characterization in medical and food safety applications. In this thesis, the Cal Poly Biofluidics Lab’s impedance spectroscopy system was re-evaluated and optimized for single-cell impedance spectroscopy. To evaluate the IS system, an impedance spectroscopy bioMEMS chip was fabricated in the Cal Poly Microfabcrication lab, software was developed to run IS experiments, and studies were run to validate the system. To explore IS optimization, Maxwell’s mixture theorem and the Schwartz-Christoffel transform were used to calculate an analytic impedance solution to the co-planar electrode system,a novel volume fraction to account for …

Transmission Probability Of Embolic Debris Through The Aortic Arch And Daughter Vessels During A Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Procedure, Jessica Lena Wirth

Master's Theses

Cerebral ischemia leading to an ischemic stroke is a possible complication of a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure. This is because embolic debris can become dislodged and travel through the aortic arch, where they either continue to the descending aorta and join the systemic circulation or travel into the cerebral vasculature through the three daughter vessels that branch off the top of the aortic arch. These three vessels are the brachiocephalic artery, the left subclavian artery, and the left common carotid artery. These three vessels lead either directly or indirectly to the cerebral vasculature, where the diameter of vessels …

Cej Ankle Support Report, Christine Prothe, James Baldwin, Erik Espinoza

Biomedical Engineering

This document provides information about an ankle support device designed to allow for ankle dorsiflexion and plantar flexion. In this document the product’s specifications, objectives and expectations are outlined. Included in this document is background information, stage gate process, prototype design development and considerations, and qualification requirements.

House Calls Mobile Virtual Stethoscope, Abigail Lindquist, Abigael Donohue, Trey Nahhas

Biomedical Engineering

The purpose of this scope of work is to outline the progress of the Virtual Stethoscope design and development project as sponsored by House Calls Mobile. This device looks to provide accessible at-home care for patients all over the country through the mobile phone stethoscope attachment. With the virtual stethoscope technology, patients will be able to perform high-quality, in-home observation of heart, stomach, and lung sounds to be transmitted to a physician in real time. Eliminating the need to travel to a doctor’s office encourages patients to perform more regular checkups, increasing their likelihood potentially of life-saving early diagnoses. This …

Sand Foot: A Prosthesis For Walking On Sand, Samantha A. Galicinao, John Dewing, Daniel Dugan Dotson, Christopher Urasaki

Biomedical Engineering

This critical design report describes the product development of a prosthesis for use on sand. Quality of Life Plus (QL+), a national non-profit organization aimed to develop prostheses for veterans and people with disabilities, introduced this project and its accompanying challenger, Sgt. Brady, to Cal Poly’s Interdisciplinary Senior Project class in September 2018. After consulting with Sgt. Brady and QL+ and performing extensive research, the Sand Foot team defined customer requirements and engineering specifications to meet these requirements. Comfortability, durability, and sandproof were key customer requirements. Several conceptual models were brainstormed and a final design was selected based on the …

Cooking Hand Multi-Tool, Amanda D. Meares, Amy H. Wilson, Ethan G. Littlejohn, Duania A. Evans

Biomedical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to devise a solution for Jorge Segura, a US Marine who was wounded in Afghanistan and had to have his non-dominant arm amputated above the elbow. His current prosthetic attachments are not suited to cooking tasks, so he needed a way to cook more effectively with either prosthetic attachments or accessibility devices. The main tasks that he needed help with was holding down food on cutting boards and stabilizing pots, pans, and bowls especially when stirring. After background research, exploring commercially available devices, and talking with our challenger, our solution was to design three …

A 3-Dimensional In Silico Test Bed For Radiofrequency Ablation Catheter Design Evaluation And Optimization, Carolyn Teng

Master's Theses

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the disordered activation of the atrial myocardium, which is a major cause of stroke. Currently, the most effective, minimally traumatic treatment for AF is percutaneous catheter ablation to isolate arrhythmogenic areas from the rest of the atrium. The standard in vitro evaluation of ablation catheters through lesion studies is a resource intensive effort due to tissue variability and visual measurement methods, necessitating large sample sizes and multiple prototype builds. A computational test bed for ablation catheter evaluation was built in SolidWorks® using the morphology and dimensions of the left atrium adjacent structures. From this geometry, the …

On-Demand Label Production, Robert A. Zimmerman

Master's Theses

The production and approval process for the various labels used in clinical trials wastes significant time and resources through the need to outsource label production or rely on large reams of pre-cut label stock for each revision throughout the process. An in-house, on-demand label printing and cutting system is a potential remedy to this waste. Previous work by Cheadle et al. resulted in a functional electomechanical prototype of the label cutting aspect of this research, capable of rudimentary linear cuts. In this continued research, emphasis was placed on improved label cutting capabilities and creating PC control software for label design. …

Automated Microscope Stage, Corin Nishimoto, Alison Flesch, Theo Anastos

Biomedical Engineering

This document seeks to describe the background information, customer requirements, design specifications, indications for use, selected materials, proposed budget, prototypes, final design, manufacturing processes, and testing methods regarding the CellOptimizer automated microscope stage product.

Fluid Delivery System For A Cell Culture On A Microfluidic Chip, Austin J. Roeder, Colleen A. Richards, Emily A. Matteson

Biomedical Engineering

This project report provides a description of the progress made in the development of a fluid delivery system for a microfluidic cell culture on a chip. The system is intended to be used in a humidified incubator in a university laboratory and the fluid delivery system is required to exist and operate within that incubator for extended periods of time. Therefore, the system will be gravity-driven and contain no electronic components. The key specification of the system is to provide fluid flow at a constant velocity.

After manufacturing and testing the device, all specifications were met except for the fluid …

Development Of A Myoelectric Detection Circuit Platform For Computer Interface Applications, Nickolas Andrew Butler

Master's Theses

Personal computers and portable electronics continue to rapidly advance and integrate into our lives as tools that facilitate efficient communication and interaction with the outside world. Now with a multitude of different devices available, personal computers are accessible to a wider audience than ever before. To continue to expand and reach new users, novel user interface technologies have been developed, such as touch input and gyroscopic motion, in which enhanced control fidelity can be achieved. For users with limited-to-no use of their hands, or for those who seek additional means to intuitively use and command a computer, novel sensory systems …

Pressure Cylinder Controlled Release Valve, Alexa Dominique Balbuena

Biomedical Engineering

This project aims to integrate an automatic gas release system in a pre-existing scaffold fabrication process for tissue engineering applications.

To form the proper scaffold structure, the fabrication process is heavily influenced by the change in its surrounding pressure. The current production involves a pressure transducer and electric valve that is managed manually to create a suitable pressure environment for the scaffold. This method, although functional, proves to be ineffective when creating several batches; the user needs to constantly monitor the developing pressure profile and alter voltage parameters accordingly to create a linear gas release under a predetermined slope.

To …

Heat Stress Identification, Nathanial Nyberg, Christina Santini, Zachary Miller

Biomedical Engineering

This document contains all information pertinent to the creation of the desired product and how the desired product fulfills the problem statement. This document clearly defines the customer requirements and how they relate to engineering specifications, metrics that will define the boundaries that the desired product must lie within. This document will then reveal all concepts that were considered during the design phase of this project and how those concepts were compared. This includes all quantitative parameters that provided a clear front-runner concept and the rationale for those parameters and the values and weight assigned to them.

Then this document …

Esophageal Mapping And Temperature Regulation For Catheter Ablation, Madison J. Keith, Morgan A. Jawitz, Sarah L. Sanders

Biomedical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to provide a development summary for a proposed esophageal temperature mapping device used during catheter ablation. Catheter ablation therapy is performed in the left atria with hot or cold materials to create scar tissue to treat atrial fibrillation. However, utilized temperatures and absorbed energies from the catheter can cause undesired esophageal damage. Therefore, this medical device is designed to monitor esophageal temperature and map its location during catheter ablation. If dangerous temperatures are reached, the device will alarm the surgeon.

This document provides an in-depth overview of the esophageal temperaturemapping device’s development and contains …

Slit Lamp Ophthalmoscope Redesign, Michael Hostetler, Austin Mattmiller, Alexis Brewer

Biomedical Engineering

The slit lamp ophthalmoscope is used by ophthalmologists for diagnosis of pathologies in the eye. The device is used for identifying ocular diseases or indications of other possible systemic diseases to treat them before the diseases progress. Redesign of the ergonomics and adjustment mechanisms of the slit lamp ophthalmoscope will attempt to improve the compatibility of the device across a greater variety of patients. The wider headrest tower of 12.75 inches, the wider table cutout of 12 inches, and the 12 inches of extension of the headrest tower creates a better ergonomic fit for the patient and doctor. The wider …

Upright Sleep Device For Patients Required To Sleep Upright Post Surgery/Medical Procedure, Kristin J. Abele, Madeleine H. Hummel, Tayler R. Kastlunger

Biomedical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Assessing Endothelial Dysfunction Estimating The Differences Between 3 Minute And 5 Minute Reactive Hyperemia, Tamiko K. Saldin

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to define a lower standard cuff occlusion time to induce reactive hyperemia in assessing endothelial dysfunction. In this study, strong evidence was found by a novel technique that used oscillometric methods, which supported that 3 minute reactive hyperemia was sufficient to elicit a significant difference in arterial compliance from baseline. Twenty healthy Cal Poly students were assessed, (n=12 female, n=8 male) aged 22 years old with a standard deviation of 2.04 years. Arterial compliance was estimated by measuring the peak-to-peak oscillations for baseline, 3 minute reactive hyperemia, and 5 minute reactive hyperemia tests, with …