Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

3-D Culture Systemfor Rapid Expansion Of Human Neural Stem Cells, Waleed Ilyas, Jeeyun Park, Dan Reep, Lawrence Talej

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Research into stem cells is a growing field of contemporary biology due to their extraordinary potential to develop into myriad cell types for use in regenerative medicine and research applications. Stem cells can vary from adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS. Due to the high potential for therapeutic applications, or individualized medicine, there is an increasing demand for stem cell quantities since a critical cell count must be met to demonstrate any therapeutic effect. The problem lies in the amount of time it takes to culture this critical cell count. Isolating fibroblasts in …

A Device For The Objective Assessment Of Adhd Using Eye Movements, Ankita Dosaj, Jefferson Overlin, Cassie Turnage

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder characterized by lack of focus, self-control,and hyperactivity. ADHD is difficult to diagnose without extensive observation by an expert, and even then is often misdiagnosed. Current methods of pediatric diagnosis rely on subjective measures of activity and behavior relative to other children [3]. Proper diagnosis is critical in preventing unnecessary prescription of the powerful, habit-forming nature of the drugs used to manage ADHD, such as Adderall and Ritalin [1][5]. Research has shown that patients with ADHD show abnormalities in reading tests and antisaccade tests, as these tests gauge ability to …

Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring System, Brittany Martinez, Brittany Noah, David Decker

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The objective of this project is to create a non-invasive hypoglycemic alert system that will detect a drop in blood sugar in type 1 diabetics during sleep. This will be achieved by creating an algorithm that couples heart rate variability with skin conductance to increase the accuracy of hypoglycemia detection. The device will be housed in a torso strap that will include: electrodes located over the user’s rib cage, a skin conductance sensor placed in the user’s armpit, a microcontroller to collect and process the data, and vibrating motors that will awaken the patient if hypoglycemia is detected. Integrating the …

A Non-Contact System For Measuring Wrist And Carpal Kinematics, Shruthi Muralidharan, Kristina Hendel, Joseph Newton, Vivek Patel

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Ligamentous and bone injuries in the wrist affect tens of thousands of adults per year and leads to abnormal function. Surgical procedures as well as physical therapy intended to restorefunction have room for improvement. Measuring wrist kinematics of the small carpal bones is necessary to understand the effect of ligamentous injury during normal motion.Currently there are motion analysis systems that are used to track large scale movementfor total body kinematics such as gait analysis. The accuracy of these systems is catered toward capturing gross movement and cannot precisely measure on the order of millimeters necessary for carpal kinematics. There are …

Toy For Preschoolers With Deaf-Blindness, Allison R. Beckmann, Chelsea B. Gebs, Julia-Grace Polich

Capstone Design Expo Posters

There are approximately 70,000-100,000 people living in America that are diagnosed as deaf-blind. Since children with deaf-blindness are an extreme minority in the US, research, toys and technological advancements for these children get overlooked. As a result, the developmental processes of children with deaf-blindness are delayed by several years, compared to normal children, due to the lack of resources available to encourage learning. According to Virginia’s Department of Education standards of learning for preschoolers, development physically, mathematically,of environmental awareness and of a sense of self are core requirements for Kindergarten. Therefore, there is a need for a toy that will …

Flow-Cytometry Machine For The Developing World, Paul Howell, Jewel Nkwocha, Jaynie Laverty

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Flow cytometry provides critical diagnostic, measurement, and research applications across many healthcare and biological disciplines. Its use in the detection of blood-cancers, HIV/AIDS, cell differentiation, and viral detection is unique and unparalleled. Despite flow cytometry’s vast array of applications, its use is limited by expense. Rather than individual labs being able to afford a dedicated machine, core facilities are developed and the research is exported. In addition, flow cytometry’s high costs create a barrier to its implementation in developing nations.

There were 35 million people living with HIV in 2013, nearly 1% of the world’s population. There are more than …

Decellularization Of Porcine Lung Tissue, Kirsten Hulbert, Linh Ta, Lumumba Reid, Mahir Dagra, Baltej Dhillon

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Our project aims to standardize the decellularization of a porcine lung by creating a bioreactor to house the lung, automating the decellularization process and developing a protocol that will increase the precision and the repeatability of the process. Our deliverables include a working prototype, an automated system that will inform the user when the decellularization process is complete, a pressure sensor to control perfusion, and automated pressurized pulses that will increase the rate of decellularization.

Our accomplishments thus far include: a design for a working prototype that will decellularize a porcine lung, determining the proper rate to perfuse the lung, …

Device To Deliver Endodontic Material For Temporary Dental Fillings, Garrett N. Cyprus, Hisham Kamoun, Gireesh B. Reddy, Ali Salman

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Root canal therapy requires patients be treated over several visits to clean and shape the pulp chamber. In endodontic treatments, cotton wool is placed beneath the temporary filling to preserve the space of the pulp chamber and to prevent any blockage of the root canals with temporary filling between clinic visits. Despite its simple application and affordability, cotton wool can lead to fibrous remnants in the pulp chamber or become incorporated into the temporary filling, which can lead to micro-leakage or bacterial colonization on the cotton fibers and subsequent infection.

Gelatin capsules or silica gels are proposed endodontic materials which …

Independent Exercise Assistive Device For Individuals With Visual Impairments, Ashley Duke, Megan Goldberg, Lindsay Schnur

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Physical exercise is challenging for individuals who are blind because they lack the spatial awareness necessary to imitate described motions for exercises, and additionally require physical guidance. The current solutions involve tactile equipment to assist in body placement, but a person with low vision cannot compare their own position to the correct position and adjust properly. The proposed solution is an instructional yoga program that will give feedback to the user based on her exercise performance, allowing people who are blind to be able to perform these exercises independently at home. The design will incorporate the Skeletal Tracking program of …

Fluorescent Biosensors To Measure Endothelial Cell Responses To Fluid Shear Stress, Natalie Noll

Undergraduate Research Posters

The response of endothelial cells, innermost layer of blood vessels, to blood flow is thought to be critical in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis in the human body is non-random and is highly correlated to vessel sites which experience oscillatory and reversing blood flow. Endothelial cells (ECs), the inner most cell layer of blood vessels are highly responsive to the drag force from blood flow, known as shear stress. To study endothelial cell responses to shear stress we used a parallel plate flow chamber in which we exposed endothelial cells to defined fluid shear stress. Using fluorescence resonance …

Design And Creation Of A Device To Induce Vergence Eye Movements, Jacob B. Jaminet, Paul A. Wetzel

Undergraduate Research Posters

Automated eye-tracking systems can detect and analyze eye movements as a means to accurately diagnose more than 20 neurological diseases including mild traumatic brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury is an occurrence of injury to the head resulting from blunt trauma or from acceleration or deceleration forces. Eye movement refers to the voluntary or involuntary movement of the eyes, helping in acquiring, fixating and tracking visual stimuli. There are three types of voluntary eye movement to track objects: smooth pursuit, vergence shifts and saccades. Vergence shifts are eye movements where the eyes move in opposite directions: moving to the midline …