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Biomedical Engineering design teams are a major part of the educational experience a student receives at MSOE. The four-year design team project is required for all biomedical engineering students.
Students become part of a design team as freshmen. They then develop a design concept which they are to turn into a reality over the next four years.
Below are examples of biomedical engineering student projects. The projects highlight the achievements of the students and illustrate the educational design experience.
Ocular Assistive Mouse and Keyboard
Team Members: Stefanie Gonzalez (BE, APM), Michael Jasperson (BE), Matt Loosen (BE), Timothy Oldiges (BE), Joshua Oranger (BE), Keelan Runnalls (BE, PM)Hundreds of thousands of individuals are annually affected by the neuromuscular disorder Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This disease breaks down myelin sheath in motor neurons resulting in muscle weakness and eventually full body paralysis.
This project took advantage of the fact that the vast majority of ALS patients maintain ocular muscle abilities. A measure of independence will be provided to users by allowing control of a computer through eye movement.
The Ocular Assistive Mouse and Keyboard was designed to move a mouse pointer relative to the iris screen location. The pointer was calibrated based on information streamed from a camera attached to the computer. Once image data was obtained, the user could employ computer functions by selecting options from a virtual keyboard. If theuser’s computer experiences a power failure or any other computer failure which results in a failure to pass data back and forth to the microcontroller, a textmessage will be sent to a pre-defined phone number from the microcontroller paired to a cellular modem and an uninterruptable power supply. This device will open up a whole new world of communication by allowing the user to control a computer with their eyes.
"Feedback Jack" — Combined CPR and Heimlich Maneuver Manikin
Team Members: Ben Buckoski (BE, APM), Chase Carpenter (BE), Nada Haydar (BE), Jack Huppert (SE), Vince Navarro (BE), Ashley Turner (BE, PM)Every year, approximately 4,600 people die from choking and almost 300,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest in the United States. The two procedures that can help save the lives of these individuals are Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and the Heimlich maneuver. CPR and the Heimlich maneuver are lifesaving procedures that, if improperly administered, can cause broken ribs, damage to internal organs, internal hemorrhaging or hypoxia to the brain. For this reason, it is imperative that a better method of training become available.
The training system being designed will provide the user with objective feedback on his or her performance based on predefined criteria.
This CPR and Heimlich maneuver manikin features a suite of sensors in an adult-sized torso that provide information to a software system on a laptop computer. The manikin can measure chest displacement and hand position for the assessment of chest compression techniques in CPR. The manikin also features an air bladder and sensor system to emulate the human abdomen to evaluate the performance of the Heimlich maneuver for the treatment of a choking individual. The software then processes this data and can provided objective, quantitative feedback to allow the user to improve his or her technique. The manikin is also capable of teaching either procedure step by step, or in a guided practice; supplementing professional instruction and decreasing the need for personal attention during instruction. The software is capable of being updated with the latest procedures to stay current with the certification process.
Home Healthcare Telemetry Toilet Seat
Team Members: Peter Eich (BE), Benjamin Hansen (BE, PM, GM), Megan O’Connor (BE, APM), Brandon Wilk (BE, CE), Ryan Wyss (BE)Sponsor: Plexus Corp.
Cardiovascular disease is the most common diagnosis of patients who require home health care. In order to keep these populations healthy, there is a growing need to constantly monitor physiological parameters in a home setting. However, user compliance is extremely low with self-monitoring of physiological parameters and with use of assisted home health devices. One of the greatest challenges in home health care is to maximize this user compliance with medical devices placed in the home.
A solution that helps ensure ease of use for the patients and ultimately compliance has been designed into a telemetry system based on a home toilet. The device measures a variety of physiological parameters such as respiration rate, blood pressure and heart rate through an electrocardiogram and a pulse plethsymograph while the patient is using the toilet. With this product the patient will not have to adapt his or her daily routine around the use of a medical device. The result is a device that improves the productivity of home health care workers, reducing health care costs and improving communication between the physician and patient.
Self-Adjusting Ankle Brace
Project Summary: This design of a self-adjusting ankle brace features a closed-loop control system with inflatable air bladders, pressure sensors, a miniature air pump, and a solenoid valve to monitor and maintain the application pressure between the side plates of the brace and the ankle. Additionally, the pressure level can be specified by the user, thus giving the user control over the stiffness level of the brace. In summary, the self-adjusting brace ensures that a constant level of support is provided during activity, and allows the user to specify that level of support based on the severity of injury and current stage of rehabilitation. Once complete, the self-adjusting ankle brace will function as an effective, versatile product that can be used exclusively during ankle sprain rehabilitation.
Instrument Tracking System
Team Members: Nathan Duhnke (ENG), Peter Feilen (APM), Brian Head (PM), Shane Rismeyer (ENG)Project Summary: Each year in the United States alone, 3,000 to 5,000 patients* have a foreign object left inside of them after a surgical procedure. This critical problem greatly impacts patient safety during and post-operation. The current method practiced by most institutions is manually counting of instruments during surgery. The current method has proved to be timely, costly and an inefficient use of hospital staff. Additionally, factoring in the time and money spent on repeat operations and legal settlements, it is easy to see how this current problem costs U.S. health institutions in excess of one billion dollars annually.
This surgical instrument tracking system is designed to alleviate this problem. This system is designed to:
- Greatly increase the prevention of the common surgical risk of retained foreign bodies by creating a smarter operating room utilizing new technology.
- Automate instrument counting and replace the now common post x-ray with quick and reliable real time tracking of surgical instruments and tools.
- This product will use radio frequency (RFID) methodologies to keep track of each surgical instrument using a unique identifier. This methodology is hospital safe and will allow nurses to monitor the position of each instrument during a surgery, which is critical to patient safety.
Phrenic Nerve Pacing System
Team Members: David Brody (ENG), Amy Green (APM), Matt LaValley (ENG), Dan Miller (ENG), Sarah Waite (PM)
Project Summary: The main goal of the Phrenic Nerve Pacing System is to replace the mechanical ventilator in order to reduce negative side-effects and recovery time for patients.
In this system, the Phrenic nerve is stimulated, which causes the diaphragm to contract and induce breathing. The idea of neural stimulation to induce breathing is not novel; however this system also incorporates specialized feedback based on the individual patient response. This feedback consists of an oxygen sensor (commonly known as a finger sensor) that measures the patient's blood oxygen saturation level. Depending on whether the oxygen saturation level is too low or too high, the stimulation intensity is adjusted automatically until an optimal patient breathing rate is achieved. The initial stimulation parameters are determined for each patient using a mouth sensor that helps determine the resting respiratory rate.. Once this resting respiratory rate is determined by the physician, the rate is translated into an appropriate stimulation parameters. The stimulation is then applied to an implanted cuff electrode which is attached to the Phrenic nerve. This stimulation will cause contraction in the diaphragm of the patient and induce the estimated appropriate breathing rate. Because of constraints with patient testing, this group will be working to develop the system to provide the stimulation as well as the feedback control.