First Steps
Friday, October 12, 2018
Surgical Navigation Apparatus Research Laboratory (SNARL)
On a cold, Friday afternoon, situated around the conference table in Stevenson Center 5837, we regrouped with Dr. Byram and Emelina after our first meeting a few weeks prior. Previously, we covered the gist of our project, in the context of this 5-year long endeavor. We would be designing and constructing a helmet, over the course of a year, capable of supporting ultrasound probes and an electroencephalogic (EEG) mesh simultaneously. In this meeting, our mentors gave us a few additional design requirements for the helmet and other factors to consider. For example, our helmet must be able to fit on multiple head sizes, must allow for movement of ultrasound probe with respect to head, must be sturdy enough to support the probes, etc.
After answering a few of our questions with regard to the mechanisms behind ultrasound, Dr. Byram and Emelina took us downstairs to tour the Biomedical Elasticity and Acoustic Measurement (BEAM) Laboratory, otherwise known as the Byram lab. We witnessed the equipments used by the Byram lab personnel to focus on algorithmic solutions for beamforming and motion estimation to clinical problems, concepts far behind our comprehension. Nonetheless, the BEAM lab is open for us to use in our year-long project.
Overall, from this initial meeting, we were able to coordinate with Dr. Byram and Emelina to set up some short term goals in order to kickstart our project. These goals included sketching an initial design of the helmet, determining whether machine shopping or 3D printing would be better in our helmet design, and developing a mock-up of an EEG mesh. As passionate undergraduate engineers, we are ready to tackle this problem.