Projects in Medical Sensors and Devices - 585.795

This course aims to provide practical, hands-on design experience to complement the pedagogical lecture-based online learning. Students with limited experience will design basic sensors and device solutions with practical biomedical use. Experienced students will utilize their basic knowledge of biomedical sensors, electronics, and measurements to design and build practical medical devices. Five examples are presented: 1) Build a biomedical signal amplifier in one laboratory to record own electrocardiogram. Then, advanced students will be challenged to develop an abnormal heart rhythm monitoring device using a microcontroller or mobile device. 2) Students will design a touch or force sensor and a measurement circuit in another laboratory. Advanced students will mount this sensor on their feet to detect footstep and assess gait, and are challenged to develop an algorithm to detect falls (a serious problem with the elderly). 3) Develop a gaming solution for people with disability (e.g., paralyzed). The basic project will be to experiment with sensors to detect movements (e.g. foot, head or eye) that can serve as an alternative sensor to a gaming interface like a mouse or a joystick. 4) The fourth hands-on project will challenge students with the problem of detecting sleep apnea (e.g. cessation of breathing attributed to sudden infant death syndrome). 5) The fifth, and final project, will be to understand the principles of brain-machine interface (BMI), and contribute to a team effort to design or use a brain wave monitoring device to control a computer or a prosthetic hand. Student teams will break down the BMI into its design component and research solutions that may have clinical and non-clinical uses, discover the state of the art and learn about the emerging frontiers in academia and industry. The course will be structured to have 5 online and remote tutorial sessions on each of the five projects as well as in-person laboratory work.