Week 1

Biomedical Engineering + Electrical Engineering: Patient Monitoring

Biomedical engineering applies engineering principles to medicine and biology to develop medical devices, improve healthcare, and solve health-related problems. Electrical engineering focuses on designing and improving electrical systems, electronics, and technology. These two fields work together by combining electrical circuits, sensors, and electronics with medical knowledge to create devices such as pacemakers, MRI machines, and wearable health monitors. Together, they help advance healthcare through innovative medical technology.

The first step of our project was becoming familiar with the materials and components we would be using throughout the project. To do this, we completed a Darlington Pair Lab. During the lab, we worked with resistors, wires, diodes, transistors, and other electronic components to better understand how they function. By the end of the lab, we were able to explain how two transistors working together in a Darlington pair amplify the overall output of the circuit. This knowledge gave us a strong foundation and helped us successfully complete the rest of the project.

Throughout this project, many different components were made simultaneously and then later combined to create our final result.

Darlington Pair

The first image on the right shows the first step in designing many of the circuits used throughout our project. Before building a circuit physically, we first created it in Tinkercad and ran a simulation to test whether it would function correctly. This allowed us to identify and fix any issues before assembling the actual circuit, saving both time and materials during the design process.

This is an image of the working Alarm Circuit that was used within our design. The purpose of the alarm would be to go off when the logic indicated that all 3 indicators of a heat attack were present. The alarm is only supposed to go off when those criteria are met, but this version of the alarm was built to go off continuously.

555 TIMER

Timer Circuit .mov

This circuit uses a 555 timer IC configured in astable mode to generate periodic clock pulses that synchronize the patient monitoring system. Acting as the timing source, it enables the circuit to evaluate simulated patient data at regular intervals rather than continuously. The timer provides the clock signal for the digital logic components, ensuring consistent and reliable updates to the device's status indicators.

LOGIC BOARD

This digital logic board integrates standard logic to evaluate simulated cardiac health indicators and determine patient risk in real time. By combining AND, OR, and NOT gates as well as flip-flop circuits, the system interprets multiple input conditions and generates the appropriate response based on predefined clinical criteria. The modular design demonstrates fundamental concepts in digital electronics, including Boolean logic, sequential circuits, state retention, and hardware-based decision making, providing the computational foundation for the patient monitoring device.

FINAL DESIGN

IMG_7277.MOV

This project involved designning, simulating, and physically constructiing a digital patient monotoring system capable of assessing simulated cardiac risk using discrete electronic components.

The system was divided into to pripary subsystems. A 555 timer circuit and an alarm circuit allowed the monitor to evaluate the patient conditions at consistent intervas rather than continuously. These signals then synchronized with the digital logic board, whcih used logic integrated circuits to process the three sensor (light) inputs and determine the appropriate patient status. Depending on the dected combination of indicators, the device illuminated colored LED's to communicate patient risk and activated an alarm during the highest risk scenario.

Throughout the project, we used Tinkercad to validate our designs before assembling and testing them on breadboards, allowing easy identification towards any problems that arose during the assembling of each circuit.

Challenges and Outcomes

During testing, we encountered unexpected issues caused by faulty resistors and other components, making it difficult to determine whether the problem was with our circuit design or the hardware itself. By systematically checking our wiring, logic, and individual components, we identified and replaced the defective parts. The completed device correctly responded to each combination of simulated patient indicators, demonstrating reliable timing, digital logic, and overall system functionality.

Research Papers

Logic Gates Research Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ObNizTfXJblyNCUIzf1kvv7q6nkYO3V1/edit

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