Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers: Effects Of Substrate Anisotropy On Cell Behavior, Christine Depompeo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

One of the major challenges in tissue engineering today is inducing organization at the cellular level in vitro. Most biological tissues exhibit anisotropic behavior. They perform differently and have different mechanical properties in different directions. This environment is difficult to mimic with traditional cell culturing methods. The development of anisotropic cell substrates may have the potential to encourage the organization required at the cellular level to induce in vitro tissue formation, an exciting prospect for the advancement of the field of tissue engineering.

It is well known that liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are highly organized polymers with temperature-dependent properties. …

Waste To Work Using Eccrine Sweat Battery Modules To Enhance Pedestrian Safety, Lauren J. Vesty

Honors Capstone Projects - All

There is a need for increased pedestrian visibility. Improved athletic clothing with built in visibility features would enhance a roadside athlete’s safety. This experiment aims to create such an athletic shirt, while incorporating wearable biotechnology. A sweat battery that produced a voltage of 0.49 V and a current of 5.16 mA was created to power the visibility aspects of the shirt. The battery uses an aluminum anode, a carbon cathode, a sponge block as the container and semi-permeable membrane, and the body’s eccrine sweat as the electrolyte solution. The battery cells were arranged into blocks to produce an optimal current …