Podcast: Ultrasound Scanning Stickers & Autonomous Protein Discovery

16 Aug, 2022

MIT engineers designed an adhesive patch that produces ultrasound images of the body. The stamp-sized device sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours. Image: Felice Frankel

In this episode, we talk about how researchers are developing a sticker that can conduct ultrasound tests along with a machine learning powered robotic solution for choosing chemical proteins when developing new drugs and biofuels or recycling plastics.

In this episode, we talk about how researchers are developing a sticker that can conduct ultrasound tests along with a machine learning powered robotic solution for choosing chemical proteins when developing new drugs and biofuels or recycling plastics.

This podcast is sponsored by Mouser Electronics.

EPISODE NOTES

(0:55) - Stickers That See Inside The Body🫀🫁

(13:40) - Automation Speeds Search For Stable Proteins🦠🤖

As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

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New device detects heat strain in military trainees

In the intensity of basic training, a smartwatch-based system warns recruits when they are at risk of heat injury.

07 Feb, 2022

This article was first published on MIT News.

In 2020, more than 2,000 U.S. service members experienced heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Such injuries pose a "significant and persistent threat to both the health of U.S. military members and the effectiveness of military operations," according to a recent military health report. Young or inexperienced recruits are especially vulnerable.

A new device from MIT Lincoln Laboratory can now alert trainees when they are heading toward injury. The device continuously estimates a person's core body temperature to determine their risk level for heat strain as they train. This risk is communicated on a smartwatch display, providing early warning to its wearer.

"Heat injury is a preventable injury if you know how to look for it," says James Balcius, who leads the program. A biomedical researcher in the Human Health and Performance Systems Group, Balcius joined Lincoln Laboratory following 30 years of military service. "The services have these injuries in the hundreds each year, and annually a number of service members have died from this. Trainers and medics could benefit from tools that provide a warning of an impending heat casualty. That's why we're developing this technology."

The system is made up of a few components. First, an armband sensor measures the trainee's heart rate. Those heart rate data are sent via Bluetooth to a smartwatch. Installed on the watch, a Lincoln Laboratory-developed app runs an algorithm that uses the data to estimate core body temperature. Depending on those results, the smartwatch will display a visual icon (a stop sign, danger sign, or thumbs up) with a colored background (red, yellow, or green) and emit an audible tone to alert users if they are overheating.

"It doesn’t mean that everyone who goes into the red will get injured, but there's a higher probability that they will, so they need to take a break," Balcius says.

Image: The device senses and wirelessly transmits signals without bulky chips or batteries. Courtesy of the researchers

Engineers fabricate a chip-free, wireless electronic "skin"

The device senses and wirelessly transmits signals related to pulse, sweat, and ultraviolet exposure, without bulky chips or batteries.

Jennifer Chu

21 Aug, 2022

artificial skin sensors

- Biomedical Devices

- wearable

This article was first published on MIT News.

Wearable sensors are ubiquitous thanks to wireless technology that enables a person’s glucose concentrations, blood pressure, heart rate, and activity levels to be transmitted seamlessly from sensor to smartphone for further analysis.

Most wireless sensors today communicate via embedded Bluetooth chips that are themselves powered by small batteries. But these conventional chips and power sources will likely be too bulky for next-generation sensors, which are taking on smaller, thinner, more flexible forms.

Now MIT engineers have devised a new kind of wearable sensor that communicates wirelessly without requiring onboard chips or batteries. Their design, detailed today in the journal Science, opens a path toward chip-free wireless sensors.

The team’s sensor design is a form of electronic skin, or “e-skin” — a flexible, semiconducting film that conforms to the skin like electronic Scotch tape. The heart of the sensor is an ultrathin, high-quality film of gallium nitride, a material that is known for its piezoelectric properties, meaning that it can both produce an electrical signal in response to mechanical strain and mechanically vibrate in response to an electrical impulse.

The researchers found they could harness gallium nitride’s two-way piezoelectric properties and use the material simultaneously for both sensing and wireless communication.

In their new study, the team produced pure, single-crystalline samples of gallium nitride, which they paired with a conducting layer of gold to boost any incoming or outgoing electrical signal. They showed that the device was sensitive enough to vibrate in response to a person’s heartbeat, as well as the salt in their sweat, and that the material’s vibrations generated an electrical signal that could be read by a nearby receiver. In this way, the device was able to wirelessly transmit sensing information, without the

Podcast: Ultrasound Scanning Stickers & Autonomous Protein Discovery

In this episode, we talk about how researchers are developing a sticker that can conduct ultrasound tests along with a machine learning powered robotic solution for choosing chemical proteins when developing new drugs and biofuels or recycling plastics.

EPISODE NOTES

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In this episode, we talk about how researchers are developing a sticker that can conduct ultrasound tests along with a machine learning powered robotic solution for choosing chemical proteins when developing new drugs and biofuels or recycling plastics.

EPISODE NOTES

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