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Students create groundbreaking biomedical
devices
Not all of the inventions produced in NC State’s biomedical engineering program
were created by veteran researchers with PhDs.
Many of the inventors are undergraduates, and their creations could become commonplace
in clinics and hospitals all over the world. The top-notch students of the Joint
NC State-UNC Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) continue to break
ground in this relatively new field.
"It was just really interesting to see how many different research opportunities
are available (in biomedical engineering) because we don’t know so much about
it," said Sneha Rangarao, a biomedical engineering major who helped invent
a super-absorbent floor mat. "It’s a growing field."
Rangarao and other students designed the floor mat for Senior
Design, the department’s capstone undergraduate course. The students teamed
up to |
From left: Carlos Kengla, Cara Buchanan, Jennifer Chan
and Sneha Rangarao. The group designed a super-absorbent
floor mat for operating rooms.
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work
on the projects, gleaning ideas from local hospitals
that had problemsthat
needed solving. This year’s NC State senior design group
saw teams working
with WakeMed,
Rex-UNC Health Care and NC State’s College
of Veterinary Medicine and Department
of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Projects are derived by students using a process involving an assessment
of real clinical needs. Andrew DiMeo, the senior design instructor, believes
this process helps "lead to the prolific invention disclosures we
submit from this course." This year’s senior design group has produced
10 invention disclosures, up from seven last year.
DiMeo, director of industrial relations for the department, brings his own
experiences to the course. He had been a graduate student in BME at UNC before
taking a leave of absence to start a family. He entered the private sector,
work that included time at Alaris Medical Systems and Gilero, a service company
he co-founded that specializes in high-volume medical |
Students showcased their work for biomedical industry professionals
at a symposium in Research Triangle Park. |
devices. He also founded the North Carolina Medical Device
Organization, a nonprofit with a mission to make the state’s medical
device and diagnostic industry a world leader in research,
development and production.
DiMeo stayed close to NC State, serving on the Board
of Advisors to the Undergraduate BME program and befriending
Dr. Frank Abrams, who ran the senior design course at the
time.
When Abrams retired a few years ago, the department was looking for someone
with real-world experience and industry connections to lead the course.
DiMeo was a natural fit.
Several of the projects DiMeo has shepherded through senior design show great
promise to enter clinics. Among them are a fluid control system for patient simulators
and a positioning device that allows X-Rays to show the appropriate part of a
patient’s leg without interference or patient discomfort.
Rangarao’s team got its idea by observing operating rooms at WakeMed. |
Andrew DiMeo is the senior design instructor
for NC State's biomedical engineering program.
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When team members spoke with doctors about
the various challenges they faced, the students found that the risk
of blood, saline solution and other fluids falling to the
floor created safety hazards during surgeries. The current method
of cleaning it up was to put a bunch of rags on the floor,
she said.
"We needed something to absorb fluid. Something
that’s easy to use and something that’s disposable," she
said. "And something that’s inexpensive, of course."
So Rangarao and the rest of her team designed a floor mat. It’s disposable
and made of several materials that absorb all the fluid immediately.
Like other senior design projects, the invention appears to have a future inoperating
rooms. A couple of investors who have seen the mat liked what they saw.
"There is an interest in it," she said. "Definitely."
DiMeo and WakeMed photos courtesy of Julianne Macie, WakeMed. |
Students who worked with WakeMed presented
their projects in April at the hospital. These students
designed a voice-activated nurse call device.
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