• Question: What are you currently working on?

    Asked by The joeff to S. S., Laura, Kevin, Ellen, Andrea, Ted on 4 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by 489heaq38.
    • Photo: Andrea Pacheco

      Andrea Pacheco answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      I am developing a device to measure oxygen levels in the lungs of preterm babies using near infra-red light. This is necessary because if a baby is born preterm today, he/she will undergo X-ray, which is very harmful.

      When we breathe we take the air which comes down our main pipe (or trachea) which then divides into a system of thinner and thinner pipes inside the lung, that end in very small air-sacks we call alveoli. (for you to have an idea of how many alveoli we have in our lungs, if alveoli were people, we could fit the population of US and Canada together, just in our lungs).
      In the case of preterm babies the alveoli look like a very weak (not properly inflated) balloon.

      How can we reach the alveoli if they are protected by skin, fat, muscle and bone? The answer is light, but not any kind. PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT: turn the torch of your phone on and cover it with your fingers, what kind of light do you see on the other side?
      When we use near infra-red light that we cannot see with naked eye, but is close to red, it will go even deeper than your fingers!

      In my research I use near infra-red light to see how well the baby is taking oxygen from the air to deliver into blood.
      Oxygen is like a sponge that absorbs light, when I shine a near infra-red laser in the chest of the baby and alveoli are healthy, very little light comes out. And if I detect a lot of light coming out of the lung it means the alveoli are weak.
      With this novel light sensing technique I am making sure all babies have a brighter future, even if they come earlier to discover the world. 🙂

    • Photo: Kevin OBrien

      Kevin OBrien answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Currently, In working on improvements to existing infusion pump designs to make then easier to build and more reliable.

    • Photo: Laura Farina

      Laura Farina answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      I am working on a device for microwave ablation to eliminate small not nice “balls” (adenomas) that people can have in their adrenal gland. The adrenal glands are 2 small glands placed above our kidneys and they control the blood pressure. Some people have a illness cause from this “balls”.
      The solution I am working on try to eliminate the “balls” saving the gland.

    • Photo: Ted Burke

      Ted Burke answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      Today I was working on a piece of software to select a specific area within a photo and then create a new photo that’s a zoomed-in version of just that area. One of my project students is creating a set of tools to do automatic image processing, so I was creating this program as an example to show him how to do a particular type of image modification.

      Tomorrow, my first-year engineering design students are competing in a game called “Tip the Can”. They have to design a robot to find a tin can on the other side of a table and drive over and touch it. The robot that does it fastest is the winner. I’ll set up the arena and the electronic timer, then spend the next few hours helping teams who are troubleshooting their robots.

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