Fall Semester
Week 12/4/17- 12/8/17
This week our focus was the presentation and the preparation for it. After submitting the Progress Report last Friday our group met and discussed what was going to be included in the presentation. Sunday evening we met with Kristina to rehearse the presentation. She gave us helpful feedback. We then submitted the presentation Tuesday evening. Cassie gave the progress report presentation on Wednesday. We plan to meet again before the end of the semester to discuss our plan for the break.
Have a great winter break!
Best,
Cassie, Taylor, and Nick
Week 11/27/17- 12/1/17
This week our group put a significant amount of time into our progress report. Our group had split up the responsibilities of writing the different sections as follows:
Taylor: Overview, Changes from Preliminary Report and the Balloon and Straw Designs
Cassie: Design Alternatives and the Budget
Nick: Overview of the Chosen Solution and the Design Specifications
We all contributed to the document over Thanksgiving break and over this past week edited it together. We also had a draft sent to Kristina by Saturday 11/25 and she gave us back some helpful feedback.
Some terminology decisions we made is to have our component be control system rather than power source, and to have intrapulmonary pressures rather than just pressures of inhalation and exhalation. We also elected to say balloon and straw model rather than balloon on a stick for clarification.
We also worked the budget a bit more and to organize it by component per recommendation of Kristina.
Also we realized we had another way to control the system and that is with a volume based circuit and that lead us to realize that this is more of a feasible option than a pressure circuit which is what we initially thought. We realized this because we are trying to measure pressure changes and if the pressures aren’t consistent then the system would not be run consistently.
All of these changes are recorded in our progress report that we have submitted today.
Looking forward we plan to work on the presentation and Cassie is presenting on the progress report next week on Wednesday.
Best,
Cassie, Nick, and Taylor
Week 11/20/17-11/24/17
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! We will back back with an update after the holiday.
Week 11/13/17-11/17/17 OFF WEEK
Week 11/6/17-11/10/17 OFF WEEK
Week 10/30/17-11/3/17
This week our group met to brainstorm more design ideas. We started our brainstorming by first creating a more detailed list of the design specifications and metrics that were included in our preliminary report. We have decided rather than to use the term vacuum for where the air is being held in our device to use the term “air chamber” upon recommendation from Dr. Yin. This list of specifications was broken down as follows:
- Air chamber
- Method for moving air
- Location for inserting the NED device
- Pressure Sensors
- Data collection
- Circuit components associated with sensors
- Power source
The specification of focus in our meeting this week was the air chamber. The considerations discussed in our meeting included how to determine the size, the volume of air and the amount of pressure that the chamber needs to have. During our brainstorming we were able to use knowledge and notes from previous courses, especially QP 2, to help better understand the model of pressures and volumes associated with the respiratory system. Using our understanding of exhalation/inhalation we were able to develop several ideas of how to use a linear actuator to create the pressure changes in the air chamber. Our group plans to continue brainstorming this specification and the others listed above in our upcoming meetings. We also are working with our client to schedule another meeting once we feel we have several strong design options.
We have sent an email to Dr. Klaesner requesting the Tech Shop Certification for the spring.
Best,
Cassie, Nick, and Taylor
Week 10/23/17-10/27/17
This week the focus of our group was getting our website up and running. We submitted our link so that it could be shared on the class website. We also shared the site with our clients and they really liked it!
After we submitted our website on Monday, we started to brainstorm some solutions to prepare ourselves for our next meeting with our client. In the coming weeks we plan to continue brainstorming solutions and evaluating their feasibilities using tools like the pugh chart. We hope to meet with our client soon to discuss our ideas so that we can have a strong progress report and presentation.
We are also still wanting the Tech Shop Certification, please let us know how to get this?
Best,
Cassie, Nick, and Taylor
Week 10/16/17-10/20/17
There is not to much to report for this week due to fall break and midterm exams. All of us were very busy preparing for exams and thus had to take a break from our brainstorming process. We have been looking into things to help design our website and plan on meeting up this weekend as a group to discuss things to include on the website. Thus our main goal for the coming week is to finish our website and to each spend some time doing some research into design ideas and patents. We aim in the next few weeks to meet with our client again to continue drafting design ideas that meet their specifications.
We also received our preliminary report score this week and plan to go over the report with the TA so that we can make improvements on the next report.
We are also still wanting the Tech Shop Certification, please let us know how to get this?
Best,
Cassie, Nick, and Taylor
Week 10/9/17-10/13/17
This week we all worked on helping Taylor prepare for the preliminary presentation. After the submission of the Preliminary report on 10/6/2017 we all attended the presentation preparation with the TA to ask her questions about the flow and appearance of the presentation. Upon receiving feedback we made edits and completed the presentation Sunday evening. The next few days Taylor rehearsed the presentation and asked for the group’s feedback. She then presented for the class on Wednesday.
We also all submitted our design notebooks for their first check. As a group we made sure that all our notebooks were up to date and that all major decisions were signed by all group members.
Moving forward we are continuing to research potential design solutions and patents relevant to our project. Furthermore, we are looking into how to develop our website for the upcoming due date.
We are also still wanting to get the TechShop certification. Please let us know how we need to go about doing this?
Best,
Cassie, Taylor and Nick
Week 10/2/17- 10/6/17
This week we primarily did research and writing of the preliminary report. As a group we met several times to work on the report and wrote certain sections of the paper together (the need statement/project scope and team responsibilities). We each were assigned a section of the paper, Cassie primarily wrote the Background and made the Gantt chart, Taylor primarily wrote the Design Specifications, and Nick wrote the existing solutions. We all contributed to the literature search and patent search. Also we meet and edited the paper together to ensure flow.
We also worked on the presentation of the preliminary report as a group and have a rough draft of a slide show. We met with the TA Kristina this morning to go over the flow of the presentation. She gave us positive feedback of what we have so far and plan to finalize the presentation this weekend.
An update from our last meeting with our client, we received a lot of feedback about our design and further clarified the specs and need of the client. Dr. Postier clarified his needs to be the following:
1) Produce an instrument that measures the internal air pressure on a passageway to determine the impact of using a single nasal device is the most important thing to us.
2) Multiple independent device measurement is second. If one works, then we can make multiple copies of it. Multiple device measurement can mean multiple instruments. However, one instrument measuring multiple devices would be preferred. I think this is much more achievable than goal number 3 due to complexities of material choices.
3) Measure the impact of nostril dilation by the device. Making a design with a soft material that mimics the human nasal passageway is a challenge. I think this challenge is too big for a 9 month project.
Moving forward after the presentation we plan to continue to research potential design solutions and patents relevant to our project.
We are also still wanting to get the TechShop certification. Please let us know how we need to go about doing this?
Thanks,
Cassie Davis, Nick Kasparie and Taylor Pemberton
Week 9/25/17- 9/29/17
This past week we had one meeting to start brainstorming possible solutions and designs for the artificial breathing device. In our meeting we started with what the device needed to measure so we researched the different types of sensors that could be compatible with our project. We were able to find typical costs and potential force and pressure sensors. From there we started compiling ideas for generating pressure differences. We found a linear motor that could be the driver for establishing these pressure differences inside of a vacuum syringe. The linear motor would be at one end of the syringe and a hose attachment would be at the other. This will replicate the trachea and support the inserts for the NED device.
From there we thought it would be useful to have a hose splitter to mimic the nostrils that branch from the trachea. We have considered 3D printing an insert that would fit inside the nose splitter on each end and support the NED device. This will allow our machine to test pressure differences with and without the NED device per request of Dr. Postier. It could also allow for testing of different sized NED devices which was also a request of Dr. Postier. The hose splitter would make it possible for two NED devices to be tested at once so that it would replicate the conditions they would be used in. We were also able to get price ranges for the syringe case, hose, and hose splitters as well.
We have also done some research on patents and other similar breathing experiments in preparation for the preliminary report that is due next week.
We are planning to meet with Dr. Postier at 2 pm today (9/28/17) to discuss our potential solutions to get his feedback and any further insight he has to share.
Thanks,
Cassie Davis, Nick Kasparie and Taylor Pemberton
Week 9/18/17- 9/22/17
This past week we have put a lot of effort into developing our need statement and project scope. We met with Brad Postier on Friday (9/15/17) to discuss in more detail the specifications of the project. He gave us lots of specifications and a better sense of what he wants this artificial breathing device to include. Some of the major points of discussion and considerations for the project include:
- Measure Pressure differences- in particular exhalation
- Measure multiple breathing cycles- ideally can be run for long periods of time, hours to days
- Measure from baseline-- need to make sure that we can quantify the difference that the NED has.
- Collect and export data
- Test that the NED meets quality and company standards
- The system has to be flexible in order to accurately represent changes in pressures
- If possible have multiple channels to test multiple devices at once
The grading came back as a 4 on our need statement and project scope, we could probably improve by clearly defining the outcome of our device and what will specifically be delivered at the end of next semester.
Moving forward, our group plans to meet and discuss potential solutions and to generate our pugh charts. Furthermore, we are going to come up with our top five solutions to present to Dr. Postier by 9/29/17. He has also asked us to look into the potential costs of our solutions in order to give him a better estimate of the costs that need to be covered, so we will also present him with these numbers. We are hoping that as we brainstorm and meet it will help us start and develop our preliminary report.
We are also wanting to ask if it is still possible to get the Tech Shop Certificate/Access? We are thinking that we will be needing to use the 3D printers. Please let us know what you need from us in order to get the Tech Shop access.
Thanks,
Cassie Davis, Nick Kasparie, and Taylor Pemberton
Week 9/11/17- 9/15/17
As we have discussed in our emails our team includes Nick Kasparie, Taylor Pemberton, and Cassie Davis.
Our group is going to work with Brad Postier from Spectrum Perception and NED. Dr. Postier has developed nasal inserts to help with snoring and has expressed a need to develop an artificial breathing device to test these devices. It needs to be able to test the effectiveness of the device either in the development, or for quality control of current designs during production. Furthermore, this device needs a device to test them which would include something which replicates natural and unnatural breathing patterns (for patients with sleep apnea, for example) and senses values such as pressure differences. Testing the devices now currently involves conscious breathing which isn't a perfect analog for sleeping patients, and this device would give more control for testing and could potentially be used for testing other respiratory devices.
We are planning on meeting with Dr. Postier this afternoon to discuss more details about the specifications of the device and to solidify the exact need. We have prepared several of the charts discussed in class and have them ready to take notes when we meet with him.
Thanks,
Cassie Davis, Nick Kasparie and Taylor Pemberton