Showcase

In coordination with our project sponsors, Dr. Smith and Dr. Holland, our team worked to create a device that could interface with a bioreactor and appropriately hold an ultrasound probe to measure Doppler flow rates along with imaging tissue structu ... res. The current procedure to obtain these measurements and images involves removing the bioreactor from the favorable environment within the incubator. It is also difficult to set up and can disturb the cellular structures within the bioreactor. Our device is capable of directly mounting onto the bioreactor and interfacing the ultrasound probe to the bioreactor, all from within the incubator. This will reduce any mechanical disturbances that can occur when removing the bioreactor from the incubator, along with keeping the cells in a favorable environment within the incubator. Read more

A way to keep preterm infact patients at normal body temperature during inter-hospital transport to prevent both hyperthermia and hypothermia, as those lead to organ failure and death

This project was done in ENG-W 231: Professional Writing Skills. Our community client is the Hoosier Herpetology Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education of its membership and the conservation of all reptiles and amphibians. Their ... issue they brought to us was increasing their membership. Read more

In partnership with our sponsor Nian Wang, our team worked to improve the device used to hold ex vivo murine tissue during High Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI images of murine tissues are used to collect qualitative and quantitativ ... e data for research studies on neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). These images can become obstructed by artifacts either from movement or magnetic resonance susceptibility. Our device and the filling procedure designed for it work to eliminate these artifacts by holding the tissue in place and extracting the bubbles that are created when filling the container with a Perfluoropolyether solution. Read more

Our goal was to create a fetoscope that can manipulate existing equipment to effectively access vasculature and increase the rate of success for the procedure.

In partnership with our sponsor Dr. Angela Yepes D.D.S, IU School of Dentistry, our team worked to create a device that would allow dental students to practice administering pediatric local anesthetic without a participating patient. Currently, there ... are no physical training models for practicing such procedures before performing them on live patients. Because of variable landmark locations in pediatrics, it can be difficult for students to know where to administer the local anesthetic, which increases the risk of a dental emergency. Thus, our team created a 3D model of a pediatric jaw that will allow dental students to practice local anesthesia procedures in order to improve their skills and confidence. Read more

Our objective is to develop a form factor that provides continuous and accurate fetal heart rate during all processes and procedures involved in the surgical delivery of the fetus. Funding support for this multidisciplinary educational project was pr ... ovided, in part, by the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, to Dr. Sherri Bucher. Read more

Kidney Disease refers to the improper filtering of waste and excess fluid from the body. Acute Kidney Injury, a form of kidney disease, affects 30-50% of hospitalized infants [1]. For the infant population, peritoneal dialysis (PD) via a catheter is ... the preferred treatment modality over hemodialysis [2]. Currently, there are not any official and practical solutions to treat infants suffering from kidney disease. With the help of our sponsors, our team sought to address this issue. As part of the project, our team focused on developing a catheter and finding a minimally-invasive procedure by which the catheters can be placed. Two existing techniques that are used to place catheters in the peritoneal cavity of infants include: laparoscopic surgery and the seldinger technique [2]. Read more

Overall, it is expected that 268,490 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and estimated that 1,414,259 people worldwide were diagnosed in 2020, making it the fourth most diagnosed cancer in the world. Removal of t ... he prostate is one of the most common treatments to prevent the spread of cancer to different organs. The removed prostate is sent to the lab to diagnose the severity of cancer (tumor size and location) and is sliced into sections. The tissue slices must be of uniform thickness to allow for proper area calculations of the tumor. If the slices are not of uniform thickness it can lead to improper diagnoses of cancer. The goal is to create a device to assist medical professionals in creating uniformly thick slices of prostates post-prostatectomy. Read more

Currently, infants born with heart conditions in need of pacing are treated using the smallest traditional pacemaker on the market, which is still considerably large for patients who are less than one year old. This is done by placing the pacemaker i ... n infants' abdomen then running the leads up to the heart, a procedure which has been in practice for the past 30 years. In 2016, the FDA approved the use of the MicraTM Pacemaker by Medtronic, known for its significantly smaller dimensions and leadless adaptation. This pacemaker would be an ideal alternative for current pediatric pacemaker implantation surgeries allowing a more fitting size in infant patients. However, there lies a crucial problem with the MicraTM: it is a pacemaker designed to be implanted directly into the heart of an adult patient. Direct implantation is an impossible task for infant populations considering their heart is about the size of a walnut (25-35 cubic centimeters). The goal of this project is to design an adapter prototype that would allow for the MicraTM to be used in the same fashion as the current pacemaker that uses leads. This would allow cardiac electrophysiologists to utilize the smaller MicraTM pacemaker, while also allowing the device to remain outside of the heart. Succeeding in this task will result in an adapted pacemaker that is proportional to the size of infants, use of the most advanced technology on the market, and the ability to produce products with reduced costs within a limited customer population. Read more