Bioengineering Projects

• Development of tracker/locator modules for attachment to animals. The requirements of low weight, long battery life, sparse and transient connectivity make this a challanging wireless project. The project is sponsored by the Lab of Ornitholgy. Three documents are available which show examples of trackers, (Microwave Week, ISBE, RF Migration talk). Contact is David Winkler.
• Electroporator -- circuit and controller to inject materials into single cells. Contact is Joe Fetcho.
• Soccer ACL acceleration/twist/bending recording for Bob Nafis:
  Bob Nafis is a member of Prof Yingxin Gao's team to study "Why female Soccer players suffer 3 to 8 times the rate of exposure to knee ACL injuries compared to male soccer players.. We have a somewhatunique system for measuring the ACL strength and shape using
  ultrasound. We are also attempting to instrument a member(s) of theCornell womans soccer team and record and create histograms of the shock across the knee during daily practice to compare with weeklymeasurements of the cross section/position of the ACL. It is our
  intention to insert a 3 axis accelerometer in the heel of thesoccer boot,with wireless transmission to a fanny pack where a "to
  be designed histogram algorithym" will record the frequency ofintervals of the multiplexed accelerometer signals. . We intend to
  install similar accelerometers above and below the knee joint, and in a shin guard. We also intend to measure the knee bend angle with
  a magnetic sensor that Philips has created with a digital output. We have yet to figure out how to measure the twist between femur
  and tibia. Packaging and antenna is a critical factor. Konix has donated the accelerometers and demo boards, and we have purchased 3
  Philips chips. The Freescale processor looks interesting and depending on whether to use Bluetooth or Zigbee as the wireless media. The fannypack receiver will need up to 10 channels and histogram storage for a week.(12 hours of field practice) .