Broadcom/Kogakuin University, Japan
Non-Intrusive Monitoring System for Isolated Elderly
Advisors: Harvey Mudd College Advisors - Professor Lisette dePillis, Professor Patrick Little, Professor Okitsugu Furuya; Kogakuin University Advisors - Professor Yukio Nakajima, Professor Masanori Shiomi, Professor Yoshihito Yasaki, Professor Sebastian Brooke
Students: Benjamin Liu (HMC), Edward Wang (HMC), Noah Duncan (HMC), Samatha Ipser (HMC), Kazuma Ouchi (KU), Yohei Katayama (KU), Masahiro Kato (KU), Shinsaku Nakamura (KU), Kyosuke Kusaka (KU)
The Global Clinic team at Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in Claremont, California is collaborating with Kogakuin University (KU) in Tokyo, Japan to develop a non-intrusive monitoring system for isolated elderly individuals in Japan. The proportion of elderly people in Japan is growing steadily. This growth, along with the fact that more and more Japanese elderly live alone and geographically distant from their families, is driving an increasing need to provide these isolated elderly individuals a sense of physical security, along with a way to stay connected to family members.
Currently available monitoring systems are not fully meeting the needs of the elderly and their families, mostly because existing solutions require users to alter their lifestyles. In response to the need for an improved monitoring and communications system, the Global Clinic team is creating a suite of user-friendly instrumented form factors that, once equipped with a variety of sensors, can measure and transmit important health data about an elderly person to family members. The current collection of sensors the team has chosen can measure heart rate, body temperature, body position, ambient temperature, humidity and geographic location.
These particular sensors were chosen as a result of surveys carried out in Japan, and consultations with medical experts. The Global Clinic team has created a demonstration-ready prototype in the form of a sensor-embedded walking cane. An accessory clip form factor and a remote-control form factor are currently under development. A user interface that can read the wirelessly transmitted sensor data has been built on top of an online web-based data base. A full report on the project can be requested from the Harvey Mudd College Global Clinic Program.
Clinic poster (pdf)
Bio-Rad Laboratories/National University of Singapore (NUS)
Novel Technologies for Protein Separations
Liaisons: Lee Lomas, Matthew Latham
Advisor: Todd Clements '97
Students: Heather Audesirk (TL-S), Winfong Lee (TL-F), Alix Chan, Weilu Dai (NUS-TL), Hannah Lim (NUS), She Yah Lim (NUS)
The Bio-Rad Global Clinic team is investigating isoelectric point-based protein separations using solid-state buffers (SSB). This process has applications in disease diagnosis and cancer research, so we aim to separate proteins from samples including e. coli, plasma and cancer cells. The team seeks to develop optimized protocols for the use of SSB, and to design, build and test a prototype device that is compatible with the SSB, with the eventual goal of producing a marketable laboratory instrument.
India/Birla Institute of Technology
Economical Solar Thermal Storage System for Rural Communities of India
Liaison: Dr. Gordon Pickett Advisors: Anthony Bright, Lisette dePillis
Students: Jennifer Lee (TL-S), Andrew Xue (TL-F), Hufsa Ahmad (TL-SU), Julie Lapidus (Scripps), Niger Washington (Pomona), Allie McDonnell (F)
Undergraduate students from Harvey Mudd College and Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi worked together to find an energy storage solution for rural communities in Jharkhand, India that do not have access to a centralized power grid. The team's final design collects low-grade heat from the sun for diurnal and seasonal use, and powers simple everyday applications like lighting or cooking. The HMC students designed the seasonal component of the system, which stores thermal energy in a large volume of soil underground.
Operation Hope Foundation/National University of Singapore (NUS)
Micro Vegetable Processor and Packager for Poor Rural Vegetable and Fruit Farmers in Developing Countries.
Liaison: Robert Kee
Advisors: Patrick Little, Dejian Huang (NUS), Philippe Adam (BCF)
Students: Erin Partlan (TL-S), Aggie Szymanska (TL-F), Roque Muna (TL-SU), Richard Coronado (S), Nobuhiro Yokote (S), Zhujun Bing (NUS,TL), Hui Ling Chung (NUS), Jing Gao (NUS)
The team has designed a portable vegetable processor and packager to be used in rural Cambodia by small-scale farmers. The purpose of this project is to give vegetable farmers the ability to generate additional income by making ready-to-eat food pouches with a minimum shelf life of six months. This will eliminate their need to sell their vegetables within a week after harvesting and provide an alternative to selling just raw produce. The processor design utilizes a retort to sterilize food that is packaged into heat-sealed pouches. This project is also funded by the Beckman Coulter Foundation, a charitable organization associated with Beckman Coulter, Incorporated.
Harvey Mudd College/University of Iceland
Waste Heat Reclamation Via a Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle
Advisors: Anthony Bright, Rnar Unnthrsson
Students: Robert Best, Masanori Honda (TL-F), Kristín Jónsdóttir (UI), Visar Jahiu (S), Róbert Kristjánsson (UI), Einar Magnússon (UI), Javier Morquecho (S), Alyssa Pierson (TL-S)
The team designed a small-scale Organic Rankine Cycle to generate usable electricity from waste heat sources. A novel heat transfer fluid, Novec, was used as the working fluid to eliminate the negative environmental effects resulting from traditional refridgerate. Capturing waste heat for energy has the potential to increase the efficiency of existing power generation systems.
Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS)/Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Development of a Low-Cost, Rapidly Deployable System for Monitoring Volcanoes
Liaison: Ian McLoughlin, Ph.D.
Advisors: Mike Erlinger, David Butler (NTU), Law Choi Look (NTU)
Students: Nick George (PC), Rebecca Glick (S), Angus Ho, Jackie Lam (TL), Choo Weiqiang Daniel (NTU), He Weijie (NTU), Li Yiyang (NTU)
In conjunction with the Earth Observatory of Singapore, the Global Clinic team designed a low-cost, rapidly-deployable volcano monitoring system to be used on volcanoes in the Sumatra region of Indonesia. The system consists of a network of sensing nodes, which use radio telemetry to transmit data to a base station capable of relaying it to researchers. The network monitors gas concentration, crater deformation, and seismic activity.
Lien Institute for the Environment (LIFE)/Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Wastewater Treatment in Rural China
Liaison: Chai Kok Chiew
Advisor: Lisette dePillis
Students: Fred Johnson, Erin Partlan (S), Cidney Scanlon (TL-S), Claire Walker (TL-F)
The Lien Institute for the Environment (LIFE) works in individual communities within developing countries to produce appropriate and life saving water, sanitation, and shelter technologies. A team of students from Nanyang Technological University and Harvey Mudd College Global Clinic are designing a wastewater treatment system for use in the Jiaoyuan village, in the Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China. The team is designing and testing systems to treat the blackwater and greywater from individual households in the village.
Applied Biosystems Inc.
Low Cost Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Instrument for Educational Market
Liaisons: Zainal Abidin, Mark Oldham
Advisors: Shenda Baker, Patrick Little
Students: Mark Hubenschmidt, Oliver Johnson (TL), Anna Lei
This project is a continuation of last year to build a low-cost real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machine designed to educate high school students. RT-PCR is the process used to concentrate a specific strand of DNA. The project goals were to optimize the existing prototype, incorporate a robust biochemical protocol, and create the firmware and user interface. The HMC team built and tested a prototype with automated thermal cycling, stable temperature control, and finer resolution for reading DNA concentration.
Lien Institute for the Environment
Design of a Household Level Arsenic Treatment System for Rural Cambodia
Liaison: Chai Kok Chiew
Advisors: Darryl Yong '96
Students: Catherine Bradshaw (HMCTL-S), Annika Eberle (HMC/TL-F), Eveline Ekklesia (NTU), Chun Heng Loh (NTU), Hui Qing Soh (NTU), Camille Sultana(HMC-S), Maggie Weber (HMC/TL-Summer)
Arsenic concentrations in Cambodian groundwater can be one hundred times greater than the World Health Organization's standard of 10 ppm. While there are several arsenic treatment methods currently used in developed countries, these methods are not suitable for rural Cambodia. In collaboration with students from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the team developed a culturally-relevant treatment method for rural Cambodia by adapting solutions from well-documented primary research. A proof-of-concept prototype was constructed using materials available locally in Cambodia.
* "(HMC)" Harvey Mudd College "(NTU)" Nanyang Technological University
Applied Biosystems
Design, Building, and Validation of a Low-Cost Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Instrument for Copying and Quantifying DNA
Liaisons: Adrian Fawcett, Ken Livak '74 and Mark Oldham
Advisor: Shenda Baker
Students: Jeffrey Rubinstein (HMC), Cedric Tan Kai Wei (NUS), Jonathan Chen (HMC), Alexandria Kealey (HMC), Elizabeth Flannery (HMC), Chang Ci'en Sharon (NUS), Sui Xiaodi (NUS)
Our Global Clinic project was a collaboration between students at Harvey Mudd College and the National University of Singapore. The project was to design build and validate, a low-cost scientific instrument for making copies of DNA and quantifying the amount of DNA during the copying process. Specifically, the project focuses on the development of the thermalcycler and the optical detection subsystems for this instrument whose intended users are students in US secondary schools.
Amgen Inc.
Optimization of a Recombinant Protein Product Through the Analysis of Filtration in the Projection Process
Liaisons: Thomas Kelleher, Anthony Tran
Advisors: Anthony Bright, Elsie Pares-Matos (UPRM-University of Puerto rico, Mayaguez) and Lorenzo Saliceti (UPRM)
Students: Felicia Nan, Kenneth Estevez (UPRM), Elisa Alfaro (UPRM), Solimar Diaz UPRM), Mackenzie Miller and Heather Schalliol
Amgen wanted the Amgen Global Clinic Team to explore sialidase inhibition and membrane filtration to optimize conditions for improving the amount of usable recombinant protein product. The HMC engineering students and the UPRM biotechnology students have been collaborating to understand sialidase activity as well as characterize different types of membranes within the filtration process.
Hewlett-Parkard Company
Gravure Coating and Imprinting in Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Processes
Liaisons: Albert Jeans, Carl Tausig
Advisors: Anthony Bright (HMC), Orlando Ruiz (UPRM, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez)
Students: Philip Cheung (HMC), Jakob Spjut (HMC), Christina Tang (HMC), Luis Acevedo (UPRM), Wilfredo Mercado (UPRM), Aisha Nieves (UPRM)
Hewlett Packard tasked the 2006 Global Clinic team with determining the feasibility of developing computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models of flows associated with an innovative roll-to-roll transistor production process. To aid optimization of the roll-to-roll process, simulations of coating and imprinting processes using Flow3D, a commercially available CFD modeling package, are desired. These models will facilitate stamp design for the imprinting process and assist in determining feasible throughput conditions for large-scale production.