The Biomedical Engineering Program鈥檚 senior design course gives students the opportunity to apply the engineering knowledge they have gained at CU Boulder to a real-world, open-ended design challenge. Industry sponsors propose a project that emulates the sort of challenges and problems students will encounter in an entry-level engineering position. Each project is then matched with a student team.
During the year-long experience, each student assumes a leadership role and contributes to the technical aspects of the project. Teams periodically meet with their industry sponsor to ensure appropriate progress is made on the project and present their proof-of-concept prototype at the Engineering Projects Expo in the spring.
This year, the first-ever graduating class of biomedical engineering worked on three projects with industry sponsor . To learn more about the teams and their designs, read about them below:
Team SyNTACQ
Team SyNTACQ built and characterized a ferromagnetic electrosurgical pencil for their senior design project. 鈥淲e wanted to design a new iteration of the device that uses a different energy modality that doesn鈥檛 need cords,鈥� said.
When an electrical current passes through a ferromagnetic wire, it heats up to a certain temperature called the Curie Point and loses magnetic property and inductance. Once the wire cools down, it regains magnetic properties, heats up again and enters a stable equilibrium.
Because it retains this steady temperature, the ferromagnetic electrosurgical pencil does not require a control circuit or cord.
Beato loved working on the project and his time as a biomedical engineering student in general. 鈥淭he discipline really gave me the grand tour of STEM fields,鈥� Beto said.
Team HemoGlobin
Team HemoGlobin redesigned a forehead pulse oximeter to optimize patient comfort and usability. The current design leaves sores on a patient鈥檚 forehead, and the headband is difficult for the nurses to manipulate.
Team HemoGlobin鈥檚 new design, which they call the Adhesive Pressure Source (APS) Cushioned Pulse Oximeter, applied a cushion to the underside of the sensor without compromising its functionality. Also, they replaced the headband with an adhesive pressure source that adheres to either side of the sensor.
鈥淏efore senior design, a lot of what we learned was theoretical,鈥� said Nicholas Vaver, 鈥渟o it was great to see how it all applies in a real-world context.鈥�
Team ACCESS
Team ACCESS created new technology for circumferentially sealing blood vessels of diameters between 7 and 10 millimeters.
For , the senior design course was the best experience of her college career. 鈥淭o work with such a big company and to better a device they use was a dream come true,鈥� she said.
