Meinig School hosts M.Eng. Industry Engagement Day

On Monday, May 14, the Meinig School hosted the second-annual industry engagement day for its master of engineering (M.Eng.) students. The event, held in Weill Hall, featured fifteen guests from industry who shared their experiences with nearly 90 students (~64 M.Eng., 19 undergraduate) and learned more about the School’s biomedical engineering programs.

Jeff Huynh, Head of Marketing for Saluda Medical, was the featured speaker at the daylong event, which also included an M.Eng. projects poster session, a career panel breakout session, and a Shark Tank-style competition where students pitched their yearlong projects to and took questions from an audience consisting of industry participants, students, and faculty.

This year, first place for both the pitch and industry design recognition competitions went to undergraduate team “MousPad,” for their project on an accurate, user-friendly system capable of monitoring mouse heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature under anesthesia. The team included Jordan Harrod, Riona Reeves, Rohan Roy, Julia Telischi, Kelly Wilson. There was also a Autodesk Fusion 360 competition, with the first place going to Pallavi Pradeep, Lirong Shao, and Jiabin You for their team’s presentation on a “Portable handheld device for early detection of preterm birth.” See below for more details on the winning teams and projects.

The annual event was organized by consultant Charla Triplett, Meinig School M.Eng. Director and Professor of Practice Newton de Faria, and graduate field assistant Belinda Floyd as a way to connect industry representatives with the facilities and breadth of talent in the Meinig School M.Eng. Program.

For more info:M.Eng. Program; Newton de Faria

Photo attribution: Suzanne Aceti Koehl

Showcase competition winners and projects:

1st place: “MousePad.” Jordan Harrod, Riona Reeves, Rohan Roy, Julia Telischi, Kelly Wilson

An accurate, user-friendly system capable of monitoring mouse heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature under anesthesia. The device uses only non-invasive sensors and adjusts system inputs to maintain acceptable conditions for the subject. This product is for use during surgery and imaging and offers data export capability post-procedure.

 2nd place: “Smart bandage” for diabetic wounds. Justin Hansen, Sissy Henriquez, Ismael Oumzil, Yvonne Shieh, Eliot Teal

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and associated diabetic wounds occur in around 15% of the 422 million patients with diabetes. Healing of these chronic wounds is significantly challenging, with the average healing time for simple wounds >2 months. During this period, dressings must be changed on a daily basis, putting significant burden on the patient, nurses and clinicians. Additionally, about 50% of diabetic wounds become infected. We have designed a “Smart Bandage” capable of continuously monitoring the healing of diabetic wounds, therefore reducing clinician involvement and improving outcomes.

 3rd place: “The future of keratoplasty.” Blake Oliaro, Charul Singh, Marin Varney, Stephanie Yiu, Zixian Wang, Jingyi Zhang

This team worked under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher Sales, who is at the cutting edge of Keratoplasty and an expert in its most recent evolution, Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) at Weill Cornell Medicine. The team developed an iDisc, which will help turn the more difficult DMEK procedure easier by providing a dissolvable carrying platform for the tissue. The team aims to accelerate the use of DMEK among surgeons as it provides patients with better visual acuity, lower graft rejection rates and shorter recovery time.

Autodesk Fusion 360 competition winners and projects:

1st place: “Portable handheld device for early detection of preterm birth.” Pallavi Pradeep, Lirong Shao, Jiabin You

Many physiological changes occur within the uterine cervix at the onset of labor from long, stiff, and closed structure to a shorter, softer, and more dilated one. Our team is currently working on a portable handheld device which is capable of detecting these changes in the biomechanical properties of the cervical tissue for an effective and timely diagnosis of premature birth.

 2nd place: “Novel heart bioreactor.” Joe Carnicelli

The goal of the project was to build a heart valve bioreactor. The reactor aims to simulation the pressure and flows experienced by the aortic or pulmonary heart valve. This bioreactor could be used to grow artificial heart valve scaffolds. Artificial heart valves have potential for use in heart valve replacement to treat heart disease. The reactor could also be used to simulation disease conditions, such as high blood pressure and an abnormal heart rate.

 3rd place: “Microfluidic device for nuclear membrane deformation.” Richard Armbruster and Vaishali Balachandran

In collaboration with Dr. Jan Lammerding and his laboratory, the team designed and developed a microfluidic device and detection system to elucidate the deformability of the nuclear membrane in target cell populations. Nuclear deformation is measured via nuclear protrusion of cells into small channels under flow conditions. This cellular characteristic is directly correlated with cell type and has the potential to become a significant biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of several disease varieties including cancer and muscular dystrophy. The team worked with Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility to design and fabricate silicon wafer masters for their microfluidic device and constructed a low cost, miniature fluorescent microscope using 3D printing technology.