Mechanical Engineering & Instruments

The project that I have developed is dubbed eClinometer. It measures the angle of elevation, depression, distance from an object, and height of the object. There are 3 main components of my project which include mechanical, electronic, and software. The mechanical portion is the wooden base which houses the electronics and is all mounted on a tripod and has two knobs which can adjust the mounted MEMS accelerometers. The electronic portion is the all the electronic components which are the MEMS accelerometers sensors and onboard Raspberry Pi. Finally, the software portion is stored on the Raspberry Pi and is using python as a language. The software’s purpose is to take the data from the MEMS sensors and put into a series of functions to find the angle of elevation, depression, distance from an object, and height of the object. To test the accuracy I measured a series of tall objects such as trees or a street light. The average percent accuracy for these objects was about 97%. eClinometer boasts convenience and efficiency thanks to its Bluetooth connection capabilities allowing it to communicate with any device using Bluetooth and a Bluetooth terminal. It also very efficient because it takes minimal time to set up the tripod and calculates the height thanks to the onboard Raspberry Pi which does all the math. Overall the project was very successful and is able to efficiently, conveniently, and accurately calculate the height of an object.

Quantitative methods that allow for a complete understanding of the effects of prototype drugs on rodent models are rare, but necessary, in optimize the drug development process. The central focus here was to develop a systems solution for the assessment of rodent behavior through measurement of the thermic effect of activity (TEA). The initial computer vision and machine learning approach was replaced with a more rigorous hardware design that allowed for simultaneous tracking of multiple rodents in the same environment continuously over an extended period of trial length. Overcoming signal interference issues, a printed circuit board (PCB) with full wireless capabilities and the necessary sensory devices was successfully designed and minimized to a size of 10mm x 10mm x 2mm, with mass ~1g, allowing for non-invasive placement on a rodent with minimal discomfort. A mathematical model was developed for the estimation of energy consumed in motion (i.e. TEA) from the three-dimensional acceleration vector function obtained via an accelerometer. The final iteration consisted of a parametric function that modeled four distinctly observed behaviors of rodents with classical mechanics; Fourier transformations were employed to filter and reduce noise. Corresponding software was then developed to operate the PCB and continuously collect, parse, and transfer data to a viewable online database. The final prototype was tested rigorously on 70 live specimens at The Rockefeller University in an 8 day analgesic study testing varying concentrations of buprenorphine and isoflurane (IACUC Protocol: 17108). Data was compared to control groups of saline and interpreted using analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing for statistical significance (p < 0.05). Results indicated a strong correlation between increasing doses of analgesia and rodent lethargy as measured by the system. The current prototype allows for quantitative, long-term measurement of rodent health without invasive or resource-intensive procedure, optimizing the drug-pipeline and reducing consumer costs. Immediate applications also include the study of neurodegenerative diseases and development of animal behavioral models.

A Purdue University study found that only 60% of trained rescuers and 37% of laypersons applied enough force for effective CPR. Considering only 6% of victims survive cardiac arrest outside of hospitals, it is clear that this is a grave issue. The purpose of this project is to create a device that can accurately test the force applied during CPR as well as the rate, and transmit it wirelessly to a mobile device. CPR requires ~550 Newtons of force at 100 bpm, so the device uses a force sensor attached to an arduino board in order to measure the amount of force and the rate at which it is applied. An app on a smartphone receives the data and translates it into a format that is clear and easy to read. The app tells the user whether they need to push harder or softer and faster or slower. The accuracy of the device is tested by placing objects with weight mg. To test the device, CPR was performed using a mannequin using both trained and untrained people. Currently, the device can send data through a wire to a computer and to a phone. Future developments include installing a Bluetooth connection that allows the device to communicate wirelessly with a phone. Considering that the device can accurately measure the force and rate of CPR, it can become an invaluable tool in the CPR training, and with further refinement and testing, emergency situations.

Conductive polymers are a new and expanding field in materials science, with a variety of potentially applications in batteries, biosensors, and electrical solar cells. In particular, flexible nanocomposite films built from conductive polymers make available a huge variety of applications.

The goal of this project is twofold. The first goal is to develop a machine learning algorithm that would, when given a multitude of three-dimensional structures of sections of flexible conductive polymers, efficiently determine the most optimal nanostructure configuration of a flexible conductive polymer that would be placed around the cathode of a solid oxide fuel cell to promote oxygen uptake and reduction at ambient, room-temperature conditions. The second goal is to use that data to design a prototype of a conductive, flexible nanocomposite film that would serve this end.

A series of simulations of various three-dimensional sections of current synthesized flexible conductive polymers were conducted under a pruned evolutionary artificial intelligence algorithm. The simulations were judged based on a fitness function that accounted for cost of materials, electronic and chemical interference, space constraints, efficiency of battery at lower temperatures, and the magnitude of the increase in oxygen uptake by the cathode of a hypothetical solid fuel oxide cell. The simulations revealed that the most efficient configuration would likely involve silver nanowires entwined with carbon nanotubes in a tessellated pattern around the cathode to allow maximum O2 reduction. As such, this is our prototype, which we hope to test in future experiments.

Many people have to go up on the roof and clean solar panels. Cleaning panels can be very costly and time-consuming. The purpose of this project is to create a functioning self-cleaning solar panel, to solve the issue of wasting time and money. Four prototypes were created for this project. The first one with a fan blowing onto the solar panel, the second was built with a blow dryer blowing onto the solar panel, third was built with an oscillating motor, and the fourth was built with an electric field. The first prototype was unsuccessful because the motor that was being used was too slow, and the fan was spread all around. The second prototype tried to fix problems of the first by using a stronger motor, and using a blowdryer to focus the air. The new motor was powerful, but air would not come out from the front. The third prototype used an oscillating motor to create a windshield wiper motion, with the normal motor attached to blow dust off the panel. This prototype was successful, but this prototype idea caused too much shadow. The fourth prototype was successful, but this prototype idea caused too much shadow. The fourth prototype could not be tested to full potential because safety of and energy constraints. The third prototype did well. For example, with 4 grams of dust on the panel, 97% of the dust was cleaned of the panel The experiment was successful and could have been better with more power and a safer environment.

My project was designed to fix the problem that a lot of showers take a long time to heat up their water and as a result, a lot of water is wasted. First, I measured how much water was wasted during a normal shower on average. I built the three methods I would be testing: recirculation, having a higher amount of pressure and a smaller diameter pipe, and temporarily collecting the water before it comes out. I measured how much water was wasted using each of these methods. I did some calculations and found that if each method was the size of a normal shower’s heating system, recirculation would use 4.7 liters, a smaller diameter pipe would use 0.65 liters, and a reservoir would use 14.1 liters. In comparison, a regular shower uses 11.04 liters. My hypothesis is incorrect. I predicted the reservoir method would save the most water and all three methods would save more than a regular shower. However, the reservoir method would actually waste more water than a normal shower, and the other two methods would save more. In the future, I would like to come up with a more consistent way to control the temperature of a shower.

This project will provide a cheap, easy way to charge pacemakers from the outside. The problem is that 3 million people have pacemakers, and the battery life is between 5-10 years. According to Webmd 84% of the people with pacemaker are older than 65. The elderly are having surgery to replace a battery every 5-10 years, and with the price of surgery at and average 115k, we can save a lot of money, 70 billion dollars precisely, and reduce the risk of infection, and heart failure to the elderly because of the surgery. My project used a transmitter and a receiver connected to a pulse generating circuit made from a bread board. At the core this circuit is created by the IC-555 chip which creates a timer delay from the added values of the resistors and capacitors. This device got a range of 21.5 mm through wet newspaper which has the similar density to to the muscles and skin. These results show that a miniature receiver could be placed on the pacemaker implant to allow wireless charging, which will save at least 70 billion dollars.