Prosthesis to Replace Crutches

Prosthesis to Replace Crutches Prosthesis to Replace Crutches Mike Sanders interests in three disparate areas entrepreneurship, mechanical engineering, and medicine, all came together one day when he glimpsed in passing a poster of a runner with a prosthetic leg.That happened serendipitously just as Sanders welches preparing to start working on a graduate degree after earning a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University a few years ago. Interested in entrepreneurship for as long as he can remember, Sanders was eager to capitalize on his engineering training. I had that bug in me from the beginning, he says, but my undergraduate work was too intense to do anything about it. He did, however, make a commitment to himself to get started on something once he began graduate work. With that a goal, he collected ideas of projects to pursue all throughout his college years.His methodical, meticulous work ethic paid off this summer with the commercial launch of Fl exLeg, a hands-free prosthetic-like device that replaces the need for crutches for temporary lower leg injuries. Trial-and-ErrorEngineering had won out as Sanders choice for a field of study over an M.D.-Ph.D. program. I always liked to tinker, he says, but he remained interested in medicine. The poster got him thinking about why someone who was recovering from a lower leg injury couldnt use a device that offered more freedom than crutches, such as prostheses for amputees, and that idea went on his growing list.Graduate school competitions provided an opportunity for Sanders to test his ideas, some even before designs were perfected. FlexLeg was one of those. Despite the accolades the idea captured, the device totenstill needed work.Image Flexleg.comOne of the biggest engineering challenges was achieving sufficient stability. Sanders original design put the support pylon directly below the knee as is done with expensive prostheses, but he realized that when the pylon is in this posi tion, users may tip outward, which can cause much more harm than tipping inward. So he moved the bar to the outside of the leg. Another change that helped stability was a redesign of the FlexLeg foot from a single point of contact with the ground to have two points of contact, the tanzabend and the heel, similar to a human foot. The foot on the device is flexible and that results in a more natural gait and pushes you toward your center of gravity with your good foot, Sanders said.Each prototype focused on addressing a specific issue, such as these, and by the sixth prototype, functionality from a stability perspective was working well. Stability is what we do better than any other competitive device, he says.After prototype six, the device still looked like an engineering project, Sanders says. It wasnt pretty, and it wasnt manufacturable. For the seventh prototype, Sanders and his team implemented principles from industrial design to address aesthetics and usability. Then it looked better and like a real product, he says, but it was still too expensive.Lessons LearnedBack to the drawing board, the team turned to extrudable aluminum to lower the cost and address weight issues. The overall design was also optimized. Until then we overbuilt everything because we were trying to figure out how to make things work, Sanders says.But in trimming down the thickness of the bar a quarter of an inch to reduce the devices weight, another issue arose the device couldnt hold someone 300 pounds and 6 feet, 8 inches. The trimming also caused torsional problems, which occurred, Sanders learned, because the closer the bar got to being flat, the less torsionally stiff it became. Correcting those issues led to prototype nine, the final production version, with a frame made of aerospace-grade aluminum and the foot of premium carbon fiber with a rubber sole.Just two years after the poster encounter, FlexLeg began shipping July 15 at a purchase price of $1,299 or rental rate of $75 per week.Sanders learned a lot by trial-and-error, and his advice to others in product development is to learn a little about anything that impacts the end result including industrial design, manufacturing, intellectual property law and general business principles. Its not possible to be an expert in everything, but its helpful to understand something about every other area, he says.Now when he starts a design, he is already taking into consideration all of those aspects as well. To say this is a good solution as an engineer, you are so much more valuable to other companies if you understand all the moving parts, and when you offer solutions, you have already accounted for them when you sit down in those meetings and give your design view, he says. You are not designing in a vacuum.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer. For Further Discussion After prototype six, the device still looked like an engineering project. It wasnt pretty, and it wasnt manufacturable.Mike Sanders, FlexLeg LLC

Using a Smart Phone as a Biosensor

Using a Smart Phone as a Biosensor Using a Smart Phone as a Biosensor A chance conversation some two years ago about augmented reality game apps got Brian Cunningham thinking about how the computing and imaging power of smart phones might be used for something near and dear to his heart.Dr. Cunningham, professor of bioengineering and of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, was meeting with an alumnus who related how the games he developed had been downloaded by millions.I started thinking that there must be something you could do with a smart phone for medical use, saysCunningham, whose area of research is biosensors.With little or no funding available, Cunningham proposed his idea to engineering students looking for a required senior project, and five volunteered. Work since then has produced a first generation device using a smart phone that promises to offer a wide range of biosensing capabilities on-location, outside of a laboratory.Led by Cunningham , the student kollektiv came up with a way to use the camera in a smart phone as a high-resolution spectrophotometer for performing some of the most important and common tests in biochemistry and molecular biology. The project is so promising that it received a grant from the National Science Foundation, and work now has started on the next generation device.Smart DeviceIn addition to having sensing capabilities for the medical field, such as detecting toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses, and the like, the device could also be used in the environmental and food safety areas for tests such as on-location identification and tracking of groundwater contamination and quality control for food and food ingredients.The device consists of an app and an attachment to the phone that the team calls a cradle. This wedge-shaped attachment that fits on the back of the phone contains optical components, lenses and filters, and a compartment where a sample is placed. It is positioned to allow the p hones camera to measure the spectrum of light coming through the sample and into the camera and provides a result in just a few minutes.According to the universitys website, the cradle, holding about $200 worth of optical components, provides a result as accurate as that from a $50,000 lab spectrophotometer.Cunningham says there were times when things didnt work, and the team had to back up a step and try again. For example, the team tried to make the cradle out of plastic, but it wasnt accurate enough to hold all of the lenses and other components in place to get a good spectrum. So the team went to a machine shop and had one made out of aluminum. That worked really well, and now I think we could make a plastic one since we know how all the components come together,says Cunningham.A 96-well microtiter plate being used for ELISA. Image Jeffrey M. Vinocur / Wikimedia CommonsPersonal DiagnosticsThe prototype works for the most commonly used biosensor tests for personal diagnostics the ELISA, or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, that identifies the presence of a substance by a color change. The team, now with new members because the first team graduated, is focusing on showing how the smart phone works with a representative number of the various ELISA tests, for example, for HIV, for cancer and others.With the NSF funding, the team is building a next generation device that will include an app and cradle capable of doing other types of tests, such as those that involve shining a laser at the sample and detecting light given off by the sample.Some of the tests we want to do involve detecting DNA, for example, detecting DNA thats present from a virus or DNA that would tell you whether a certain strain of bacteria is resistant to antibiotics, Cunningham says. There are certain tests where you want to detect a DNA sequence and the output of that is fluorescent. Our new system incorporates a green laser pointer and the ability to shine a laser at the sample.The first device had to be held up to a light bulb or the sun to get the light to come through a pin hole. With the next one, the idea is to use an internal LED of the phone itself as the light source, he explaines. Its more self-contained.Cunningham says he hopes, perhaps a year from now, there may be something commercially available that could be used for tests other than medical testing, which will take longer for regulatory approval.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer. For Further DiscussionI started thinking that there must be something you could do with a smart phone for medical use.Brian T. Cunningham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Liberal arts major Heres how to get hired

Liberal arts major Heres how to get hiredLiberal arts major Heres how to get hiredThe results are in. CEOs in the hottest industries want to hire liberal arts majors. Its not just that CEOs themselves often have liberal arts backgrounds, but that so many companies are desperate for employees who can both think for themselves and collaborate with a team, while ably navigating the infinite possibilities of the Information Age. Who has these abilities? People with the creative and critical thinking skills that liberal arts educations foster. Even though everyone knows that they need the liberal arts advantage in their firm, however, qualifikation employers may need your help to see how your pathway through college prepares you for the job. You need to make good choices in school in order to prepare your liberal arts degree for life after graduation, then learn how to talk about your undergraduate studies to prospective employers. Its way past time to replace STEM with STEAM (Science, Te chnology, Engineering, Arts and Math). You can have it all A degree you love and a good job. Here are five tips to get you started.Major in what you loveYoull get better grades and generally just be a happier person if you spend your time studying the things you want to spend your time on. This may sound trite, but over the last 15 years of talking to undergraduates about their studies, Ive watched so many students blossom by switching from a job-oriented major to one that they feel passionate about. Youre likely to swap jobs and even careers many times in your life, so dont get caught up in training for something hyper specific. Dont waste college by spending all your time being unhappy with your major.Take some practical classesMost liberal arts majors are not packed with an overwhelming number of required courses, so put that flexibility to your advantage. Revel in your subjectmaybe its medieval history, South Asian novels or ceramics. Then be savvy about electives. Take some cou rses that the least creative hiring manager in corporate America will recognize as useful. Maybe choose a statistics or economics class, learn a little computer programming, or even minor in chemistry. Because that hiring manager is right, these classes are useful. Use your whole transcript to show the world who you are.Talk Skills, Not CoursesIf you want to jump from your major into a field that isnt clearly linked to its content, learn to describe your coursework for its skills, not what you covered. Practice your answer for when an interviewer asks you about college. Few interviewers care about the expertise that you developed about the Roman empire, as cool as that is. Instead, say that your liberal arts degree offered numerous opportunities to engage in research, answer complicated questions, assemble evidence quickly and often in groups, and then write persuasively. There are a lot of jobs in which the one page memo and the persuasive 20 minute PowerPoint presentation make all the difference between profit and loss. Liberal Arts majors have these critical skills. Look For High Impact ExperiencesCollege is filled with cool opportunities. You can live abroad for months or years, often for no more money than it would cost you to stay in the dorms. Colleges will put you in groups and teach you to build roads, housing, or teach in underprivileged communities. I never get over seeing the wonder on students faces when they find out their college will pay them a pretty good wage to do research Take advantage of these chances.Then, when facing a job interview, pull these out to talk about creativity, teamwork, dedication, work ethic, and overcoming challenges. When you sit in a chair opposite an interviewer and they ask you about your proudest accomplishment, it cant be your sophomore year beer pong title.WorkYou love your major. Youve diversified your transcript. You know how to talk about your skills. Youve done something amazing. Now, if you havent, go to work . Get a job. Shoot for that amazing paid internship. Collaborate with a professor as a research assistant. Become a peer counselor, advisor, tutor, or coach. Even if youre stuck in a gig you hate because you need to pay the bills, own it, and make it part of the story youre going to take when you when you graduate. As a liberal arts major, youre the well-rounded, creative, analytical, total package. You know a lot, but best of all, you know how to learn. Tell the right story about yourself and watch as the doors open wide.