In February 2015, senior biomedical engineering students were asked to present posters describing their senior projects at Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). All students at B´ÎÔª participate in a senior project, which are a culmination of all they’ve learned in their time at B´ÎÔª. Biomedical engineering students begin their senior capstone project at the end of their sophomore year. By senior year they put what they’ve learned to work and complete their capstone project by applying quantitative analysis and systematic synthesis to develop a prototype product for a real-world application.

This year’s projects include:

In Utero Spina Bifida Cystica Repair System
Team: Cody Dziuk, Ayushman Rai and Nik Stasinopoulos
The purpose of this project is to create a toolbox of approaches for a biomaterial delivery system for use in the in utero repair of spina bifida. The minimally invasive device will be used to deliver a protective biomaterial to cover the exposed spinal cord of the fetus while it is in the womb. This toolbox will be given to Amy Wagner, MD at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to use when the final biomaterial is chosen by her team. To show that the device is functional with a mock material, a mock uterus will be created to simulate the surgery.

Total Knee Replacement Sizing Tool
Team: Garrison Glowniak, Enyinnaya Okwulehie, Travis Pischel (ME major) and Alexandra Swanson
The goal of this device is to make the knee replacement process more universal and help decrease the number of revision surgeries needed to correct for improper fit and alignment of knee implants. This measuring device will be used to measure the medial and lateral gaps that occur between the tibial plate and femoral component prior to the implant trial being completely installed by spreading two prongs until they come in contact with the femoral component to see what size trial is needed. Currently, the practice of fitting an implant involves a hands-on, trial and error approach, in which the surgeon manipulates the knee to simulate the typical range of motion. This process often leads to an implant size change, which requires the surgeon to remove the current trials, recut the bones, and install a new size trial, which adds a substantial amount of time.

Traumatic Brain Injury Research Device
Team: Alex Jandrin, Ryan Damask, Amy Gustafson and Andrea Winegar
This project involves creating a helmet-like device used with an energy delivery device to induce traumatic brain injury in rats. The helmet will be able to transfer energy to induce injury in the coronal, sagittal and transverse planes. The helmet will also minimize the slip between the device and the rat’s skull during energy transfer. The helmet design will allow for the user to be able to set up testing in a short amount of time without harming the rat. The helmet will attach to the pneumatic energy delivery device that will cause a specific degree of head injury.