6/18/2012 By Meredith Staub 4 min read
Written by By Meredith Staub
The project was sponsored by ISS, Inc., a Champaign company that manufactures biomedical instrumentation and research fluorescence instrumentation to major universities, corporations, hospitals, and research institutions. Its U.S. customers include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“This was an exciting group to work with” said Dennis Hueber, Director of Engineering at ISS. “The students grasped the concepts we were trying to implement for our device and put them into a design solution conducive to a suitable and working prototype.”
The goal of the project was to design a new coupler for a fiber-optic cable needed for one of the company’s products, after the design necessitated a fiber-optic cable with a core much smaller than the original. The product, a non-invasive tissue oximeter called the OxyplexTS, uses Near Infrared (NIR) light to measure the amount of oxygenated and de-oxygenated hemoglobin concentrations in tissue. This measurement has applications in anesthesiology, neonatal studies, and research into diseases such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The main objective of the project was to take 50% of the light emitted by a laser diode inside the machine, and focus it into a fiber optic cable. The ME 470 team exceeded this objective, ending with a product that focused approximately 55% of the light.
“At the beginning we did a lot of research to become familiar with what technologies were available, and what we would need for the project,” Grazian said.
The students saw their effort in the project reflected by their first-place prize.
“Because ME 470 is a design class, some of the projects can have pretty technical components to them,” Banko said, “but what they wanted to see is that we considered things from a bunch of different angles, went through a couple of design iterations, and then wrote reports and gave presentations that were very clear in their content, very thorough, but also succinct. So we spent a lot of time on making good presentations, working on the report, making sure we could explain every design decision that we made.”
“We had a very good level of organization as well,” Youngren said, “always being in contact with the TA, and the faculty advisors, and with each other to make sure that we were all on the same page, that we all knew what we needed to get done.”
Teamwork is a core value of the ME 470 class, which organizes groups of students into project teams. It was also an essential part of their project’s success, they said.
“470 projects aren’t something where, if your teammates aren’t doing any work then you can just carry on by yourself,” Banko said. “It would never work out that way.”
“You have to work together,” Grazian said.
They were also guided by the course organizers, MechSE research professor Stephen Platt and the department’s director of undergraduate programs, Emad Jassim, as well as their team faculty advisor, associate professor Sascha Hilgenfeldt.
“They really did a great job of keeping us on our toes, and making sure we got our work done to the best of what they could encourage,” Youngren said.
Taking ME 470 had many benefits for the students, especially giving them professional and research experience outside of typical lab classes.
“ISS has a long standing history of collaboration with The University of Illinois,” Hueber said. “The ME 470 program is very interesting as it puts students into direct contact with companies; what it is exciting about is that they indeed come up with a solution to the problem.”
All three students would recommend the class to others considering taking it, both for the experience and the personal satisfaction of completing an independent project.
“If you put in the effort, it’s very rewarding,” Grazian said. “You can come out with a project that you’re very happy with and that the company is very happy with.”