Proj. Manag.

Project Management 

Gantt Chart

Project Objectives

High Priority Objectives

• Creating a working smearer that wicks and smears blood at variable angles with precision and repeatability

• Reducing contamination with cleaning mechanism or disposable spreader

Second Priority Objectives

• Design for automation for slide loading / unloading, blood dispensing, etc.

• Slide labeling with barcode / QR code

Other Constraints and Issues

• Need to minimize the size of device

  • Need to eventually work with human blood to accurately optimize the device.

    • Biological hazard

    • Provided by sponsor

  • Cleanliness of smearing component.

    • Cannot contaminate the rest of the machine with blood

    • Need to ensure spreader is sterile before every sample

  • Need to match blood smear quality of commercially available devices

WOW Design Solution

• Fully automated device similar to commercial blood smearers that only requires operator to insert blood vial and press START

• Novel method to evenly spread blood onto slide (i.e. spincoating)

• Blood staining incorporation

Risk Reduction Strategy

• Test current motors/materials and optimize

• Reduce contamination between different blood samples

  • Sterilization vs. disposable components

  • Cost/Risk Analysis

  • Experimental comparison of methods for sterilization

Intermediate Milestones

• Numerical Analysis

  • Optimize parameters and components

• CAD Model

  • Fully developed SolidWorks model + simulations

• Purchase all necessary components (spreader, slides, motors, controllers, etc.)

• 3D printed components for testing

  • Replace with off-the-shelf or machined components if needed

• Testing with pig blood

• Testing with human blood

• Finalize machine / controller design