BME Students Gain Engineering Experience Through SPUR Research Program
This summer, several undergraduate students in the Biomedical Engineering program participated in the ֱ Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) conducting research in campus labs. The students, their projects, and their sponsoring labs can be found below.
Three students are conducting research in Dr. Wei Tan's lab, a BME faculty member. Bridget Antreasin is studyingThe Design and Fabrication of Novel Vascular Grafts; Anna Sallee studies theThin coating of Metallic Vascular Stents;Meghan Stancliff is studyingModeling the Link Between Desing and Well-Being Outcomes of Campus Transport. Two students are conducting research in Dr. Wyatt Shield’s lab. Alisha Kumari studiesProgramming Active Particle Behavior by Depositing Precisely Shaped Metallic Surface Patches;Vivan Nguyen is studying theDesign and Fabrication of Active Magnetic Particles with Unique Geometries. In Dr. Ortiz Peleg’s lab, undergraduate student Andrew Swanson studiesAdaptations of Honeybees Swarm in Response to Environmental Perturbations.Sam Zanotti is studyingAdvanced Materials and Bioinspiration in Dr. Francois Barthelat’s lab. In Professor John Crimaldi and Dr. Aaron True’s lab, David Katilius studies theFluid Dynamics of Olfaction.Madison Seckman is studyingGraphene-Based Semipermeable Membrane Electrode (grME) Fabrication Parameters in Dr. John Pellegrino’s lab.In Dr. Sarah Calve’s lab, student Nathan Day studiesOptogenetic Control of Tissue-Engineering Robotic Jellyfish Using Smooth Muscle.Student Cole Thomas is studyingDroplet Motion through Microchannels in Dr. Robert Davis’s lab. In Dr. Michael Toney and Trisha Nickerson’s lab, student Matteo Campbell studiesAlternative Sanitation Compost.
ֱ SPUR is open to all undergraduate students in the Engineering and Applied Sciences program. The program aims to engage students in research with college faculty and graduate students. ֱ SPUR is just one of the research programs available to students in the College, other programs include ֱ DLA and ۰’R䱫. Participating in research allows students to gain hands-on learning and allows them to take what they have learned in the classroom and see how it is used in real-world applications. Students can benefit from networking opportunities and mentoring by joining a research team.
BME Students Share Their Experience
“In the Tanlab, my work focuses on the characterization of coaxial electrospun fibers as a vascular graft material. The goal of the project is to create a graft material that mimics the mechanical properties of the native blood vessels and acts as a scaffold to allow for tissue regeneration. This experience has allowed me to apply much of the knowledge gained from my coursework, and it has helped me gain insight into graduate school.” - Bridget Antreasin (pictured on the right)
“This summer I worked on quantifying thrombogenicity using human plasma.The procedure I am working on provides a facile, fast, high-throughput means to quantify the thrombogenicity of a vascular implant using the absorbance readings of separated plasma.” - Anna Sallee (pictured above on the left)
“Engagement with external sources, or stakeholders, outside of the design team (e.g. community members, field experts, people interacting with the product, etc.) is prevalent within engineering design, and my research aims to look into how designers interact with and represent these sources. Specifically, we’ve been looking into what conditions may make designers more or less likely to take stakeholders’ perspectives and the accuracy to which they represent stakeholder perspectives.
This opportunity has allowed me to meet some incredible people and mentors and has taught me so much about engineering design—a discipline of engineering I didn’t know existed until eight months ago. Doing design research has enabled me to seamlessly combine my interests in engineering, anthropology, psychology, and writing. Because of this research, I’ve been able to find a field of engineering that I’m extremely passionate about.” - Meghan Stancliff
“In this project I used two-photon lithography to print particles and metal deposition to deposit unique metallic surface patches on them. Our goal was to test the trajectory of particles in three systems: magnetics, catalysis, and electrokinetics. I really enjoyed working in the lab and learning how to utilize machines and software that I hadn't before.” - Alisha Kumari (pictured on the right)
“My project mainly focuses on the idea of magnetic microrobots. Spherical magnetic rollers have been well explored in the past, so we wanted to look at and design particles of unique and interesting geometries. Specifically, we wanted to study how these particles' behavior differs from spherical ones such as in their speed or in their trajectories. These differences could play a major role in how they can maneuver in biological systems.
SPUR has allowed me to have hands-on experience in a research lab as well as in clean-room fabrication. It has given me the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge, which has not only solidified those ideas, but has also allowed me to learn even more in these fields of study. I have grown to be a more confident student and a better learner. I have also been connected with other undergrads and graduate mentors in the lab that have given me valuable advice moving forward in my academic career.” - Vivian Nguyen (pictured left above)
"My research mostly consists of development of image processing algorithms in MATLAB to get meaningful information from our CT scans of honeybee swarms that we artificially create in our lab. I am also responsible for monitoring the X-ray machine while we gather data for our experiments and a little bit of beekeeping in our outdoor apiary. Getting a bit outside of the realm of biomedical engineering while still applying techniques I’ve learned in classes has been really interesting and fun! I attached a couple images of me taken over the summer.” - Andrew Swanson
“They look to combine theoretical mechanics, numerical modeling, optimization, experimental mechanics, 3D printing, and also a bit of biology. This led them to replicate the mechanics of fish fins through a simple laser-cut model. They hired me as a biomedical engineering student to explore how this can be applied in the medical field, specifically catheters. My job was to replicate the steerable tip of a catheter with our "fish fin" morphing material.” - Sam Zanotti
"Essentially, I was contracted to design a wind tunnel that would allow a couple hundred bees to be blown by wind speeds that are typically seen in nature. These bees would be forced into the standing position rather than flying so that researchers could understand more about their antenna (the part that smells) and how they respond to wind and odors within the wind.” - David Katilius
“PhD. students Caleb Song and Tom Disorbo mentored me on their project, from which I derived my summer project: Graphene Based Semipermeable Membrane Electrode (grME) Fabrication Parameters. GrMEs are composed of a thin polymer layer and an anisotropically conductive layer of graphene sheets. They are 25-mm in diameter, and it can take anywhere from 2-3 days to make one membrane. Eventually, the lab would like to put grMEs in a fuel cell that will be used to power prosthetics with blood flow, therefore removing the need for lithium-ion batteries."- Madison Seckman
“The overall goal of this research project is to deform a thin layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using primary human smooth muscle cells from the bladder. This will eventually be used to create a jellyfish-like construct that we can use to model biological pumps to study biotransport mechanisms and systems. A similar project to this was done by researchers in 2013 using rat cardiomyocytes and an electric field in lieu of pacemaker cells. We aim to create a similar construct using smooth muscle cells instead. Smooth muscle differs from cardiac muscle in the way it contracts and responds to stimuli.
Unlike the rapid, rhythmic contractions of cardiac muscle (often regulated by the pacemaker cells), smooth muscles exhibit slow, sustained contractions over a longer period of maintained tension. As we iterate, we will see how the different properties of smooth muscles will affect the design and function of our bioinspired construct. The objective is to create a swimming construct similar to a juvenile jellyfish using smooth muscle cells and work our way up to more complex biological models. Overall, this project can provide us with valuable information about physiological processes involving smooth muscle-driven transport including vasoconstriction, lymphatic circulation, peristalsis, and micturition. Furthermore, it will contribute to advances in biohybrid and bioinspired robotics.” - Nathan Day
“In this lab we studied the deformation of 8% Glycerol and PDMS droplets as they pass through various constrictions in a straight channel. The SPUR program was a great opportunity for me to decide whether or not to pursue research as a career.” - Cole Thomas