A wearable electronic swim coach for blind athletes

This project aims to enable a visually impaired swimmer to train with more independence than currently allowed by other solutions. The final device prototype consists of a smartphone application that leverages various hardware components within a smartphone, such as the video camera and the gyroscope. These hardware components are used to track the visually impaired swimmer in a reliable manner and notify the swimmer if they have deviated to a side or if they are approaching the end of their lane. The final prototype uses machine vision to track a swimmer's position relative to the black 'T' shaped line on the bottom of a standard competitive swimming pool. A device prototype is created and tested to demonstrate the proof of concept for the device design and algorithm. The in-water device testing demonstrates the success of the prototype in real-world scenarios and highlights opportunities for further device improvements

Controlling Differentiation of Stem Cells for Developing Personalized Organ-on-Chip Platforms

Organ-on-chip (OOC) platforms have attracted attentions of pharmaceutical companies as powerful tools for screening of existing drugs and development of new drug candidates. OOCs have primarily used human cell lines or primary cells to develop biomimetic tissue models. However, the ability of human stem cells in unlimited self-renewal and differentiation into multiple lineages has made them attractive for OOCs. The microfluidic technology has enabled precise control of stem cell differentiation using soluble factors, biophysical cues, and electromagnetic signals. This study discusses different tissue- and organ-on-chip platforms (i.e., skin, brain, blood-brain barrier, bone marrow, heart, liver, lung, tumor, and vascular), with an emphasis on the critical role of stem cells in the synthesis of complex tissues. This study further recaps the design, fabrication, high-throughput performance, and improved functionality of stem-cell-based OOCs, technical challenges, obstacles against implementing their potential applications, and future perspectives related to different experimental platforms