Senior Design Expo 2023

Biomedical Engineering
connectiV
Helena Cirne, Anjali Santhanam, Kiara Robichaud, Caitlyn Limanto, and Elvin Canseco
Within the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), most neonates require intravenous (IV)
therapy. Full-term infants receive up to 100-140 mL/kg/day, yielding an administration of 10-20
mL/hr. However, the rates can get as low as 0.1 mL/hr for concentrated drugs. Multiple inputs
must be connected to a singular vascular access device, increasing variability in flow rate and
risk of backflow due to flow interactions between several input sources at connection points.
Improper administration of medication can cause serious adverse events such as abnormal blood
pressure, anxiety from a loss of sedation, and increased pain. Thus, there is a need to reduce flow
inconsistencies within NICU tubing connection ports while monitoring fluid flow for precise
drug dosing in neonatal patients. To address these shortcomings in neonatal IV therapies, we
have created a two-part system. The first component replaces existing connection ports with
3D-printed, medically safe, sterile millifluidic chips. The millifluidic chip increases flow rate
consistency and reduces negative flow interactions to ensure more accurate drug delivery. This
works in conjunction with an external, photoresistor-based flow detection system that facilitates
hands-off monitoring. This device will be capable of alerting health providers to potential
disruptions of flow. connectiV works to minimize the deficiencies in the current technology used
in the NICU by improving the system of IV drug delivery.
verifyNG
Lori Luo, Catherine Medeiros, Joy Fan, and Hsinyen Huang
A nasogastric (NG) tube is a soft, rubber tube inserted into the nose, down the esophagus, and
into the stomach by clinicians around the world to provide nutrition and dietary supplements to
individuals who otherwise cannot eat. Despite the daily use of NG tubes by clinical care teams
around the world, studies have shown that 88% of nurses do not quantitatively verify that the
tube is properly placed in the stomach. Moreover, out of 932 blind placements of an NG tube,
around half were misplaced. Misplacement of an NG tube can lead to lethal results, especially
when the NG tube is placed in the lungs, where the delivery of nutritional feed can result in
serious patient injury or death via drowning. Current methods to verify placement, such as x-ray,
cause delays in patient care and require specially trained staff. As a result, there remains a need
for an easy-to-use, binary output sensor to accurately confirm the proper placement of the NG
tube. Using inductive sensing technology, the verifyNG device is able to accurately detect if the
NG tube is placed in the stomach with an intuitive binary output. The use of this device in
clinical settings across the world will improve NG tube placement accuracy and patient
outcomes.
10