Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
3 Portable PCR Machine
 Hershel Rege
Nathan Franczyk
Yihao Yang
 proposal0.pdf
-Hershel Dave-Rege davereg2
-Nathan Franczyk frnczyk2
-Yihao Yang yyang150

Problem Statement:

Conventional methods for PCR (polymerase chain reaction) are time-consuming, and costly with no room for mobility in the design of current machines.

Solution:

Develop a self-contained, portable PCR machine.

Scope of Project:

Developing an entire PCR system with fully automatic functionality is out of scope for a semester project. Therefore, we propose to limit the scope to developing a portable machine (max 25 pounds) that autonomously completes the thermal cycling of 2 samples of DNA, with real-time thermal sensor measurements.

System Description:

Our idea is to develop an all-in-one portable system that contains all the same elements as a traditional PCR machine, but on a miniaturized scale. The different blocks within the system include:
-Infrared LEDs to heat up the samples and miniature fans to cool down the samples
-Thermocouples connected to a high resolution analog-to-digital converter to get accurate real-time temperature measurements
-Microcontroller interface to automate the thermal cycling
-USB interface to computer for display of real-time measurements
-Powered by rechargeable battery
-An enclosure to properly house the samples and all associated components (battery, PCBs)

Test of Functionality:

The system’s success can be verified by affirming that the system can operate for 30 thermal cycles continuously without losing power, and consistently hits the temperature benchmarks of 75 to 95 degrees Celsius for each cycle. The system should be able to achieve heating rates of 6 degrees/second and cooling rates of 3 degrees/second, and should not weigh over 25 pounds.

Prosthetic Control Board

Caleb Albers, Daniel Lee

Prosthetic Control Board

Featured Project

Psyonic is a local start-up that has been working on a prosthetic arm with an impressive set of features as well as being affordable. The current iteration of the main hand board is functional, but has limitations in computational power as well as scalability. In lieu of this, Psyonic wishes to switch to a production-ready chip that is an improvement on the current micro controller by utilizing a more modern architecture. During this change a few new features would be added that would improve safety, allow for easier debugging, and fix some issues present in the current implementation. The board is also slated to communicate with several other boards found in the hand. Additionally we are looking at the possibility of improving the longevity of the product with methods such as conformal coating and potting.

Core Functionality:

Replace microcontroller, change connectors, and code software to send control signals to the motor drivers

Tier 1 functions:

Add additional communication interfaces (I2C), and add temperature sensor.

Tier 2 functions:

Setup framework for communication between other boards, and improve board longevity.

Overview of proposed changes by affected area:

Microcontroller/Architecture Change:

Teensy -> Production-ready chip (most likely ARM based, i.e. STM32 family of processors)

Board:

support new microcontroller, adding additional communication interfaces (I2C), change to more robust connector. (will need to design pcb for both main control as well as finger sensors)

Sensor:

Addition of a temperature sensor to provide temperature feedback to the microcontroller.

Software:

change from Arduino IDE to new toolchain. (ARM has various base libraries such as mbed and can be configured for use with eclipse to act as IDE) Lay out framework to allow communication from other boards found in other parts of the arm.