NASA

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NASA  /  New  York  Space  Grant  Consortium

• Prof. Sheldon Weinbaum and Dr. Phillip Payton
• Department of Biomedical Engineering
• The City College of New York
• The City University of New York

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Highlights past decade CCNY NYSPG Affiliate
Program

• 1. Proposed and twice hosted NASA in New York
  Day for NYC area high schools.
• Attended by 1150 high school juniors from 120
  high schools
• 150 high school science teachers and
  counselors present
• Morning Speakers
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Director Rose Planetarium
• Yervant Terzian, Cornell, Director NYSPG
• James Hanson, Director NASA Goddard Inst.
• Mario Runco, Astronaut (CCNY)
• Ellen Baker, Astronaut (SUNY Buffalo)
• Afternoon Exhibits, demonstrations, tours,
  NASA raffle

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Highlights of CCNY NYSPG Affiliate Program (Cont)

• 2. Summer research program for high school
  students (1997-2004)
• 3. NASA Space Grant Fellowships and Scholarships
  (1997-2007)
• 4. NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate
  (ESMD) Space Grant Program Design Projects
  (2007-2009)

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NASA Space Grant Fellowships and Scholarships at
CCNY

• First NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellowship
  1997-1999
• Peter J. Butler-Associate Professor BME, Penn
  State Univ.
• Amer. Heart Assoc. Fellow 1999-2002, NSF Career
  Award 2002
• NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellowships since 2004
• Erica Calton (BME minority, passed 2nd exam PhD)
• Eduardo Hernandez (EE minority, passed 2nd exam
  PhD)
• Kelly Emerton (BME, passed 2nd PhD exam)
• Georgina Bermudez (BME minority, MS 2007)
• Danielle Wu (BME, 2nd year of PhD)
• Rishi Mathura (BME minority, 2nd year of PhD)
• NASA Space Grant UG BME Scholarships (500-2000)
• Ilana Hellman (Valedictorian CCNY 2006)
• Jennifer Walz (Valedictorian Grove SOE 2007)
• Undergraduate BME majors with GPA gt 3.5

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ESMD - Senior Design Program

• Objective integration of one or more ESMD
  mission challenges into a biomedical engineering
  design course
• Phase I students learn skills in teamwork,
  design process, planning and scheduling, proposal
  and technical report writing, and oral
  presentations.
• Phase II construction and evaluation of the
  device prototype, testing for conformity with
  specifications, ethics in design and safety, and
  construction of a final product.

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Design of a portable minimally-intrusive
biomonitor for NASA

• Location
• Senior Design Laboratory in the Biomedical
  Engineering Department. The City College of New
  York
• Participants
• Larriera A., Hue C., Davis L., Javed B., Khouma
  N., Latif A., Osman M., Shah P., Singh S.,
  Teklehaimanot Y. and Tindi J.
• Professors
• Dr. L. Cardoso and Dr. M. Bikson
• Teaching assistants
• R. Mathura and H. Qazi (Graduate Students)

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Design of a portable minimally-intrusive
biomonitor for NASA

• Team composition
• 5 Females 6 Males undergraduate Junior students
• 4 African American, 6 Asian, 1 Hispanic
• 4 out of 11 are NIH Scholars
• GPA higher than 3.0

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Introduction

• During space flights, astronauts are exposed to a
  harsh environment with many factors that pose
  threats to their health and well being.
• Monitoring the state of vital physiological
  parameters is essential for detecting medical
  conditions that may result in mission failure.
• The design of a portable biomonitor is proposed
  to help assess astronauts health status in space.

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Goal

• To develop a minimally invasive portable
  biomonitor suitable for use by astronauts during
  space flights.

Biomonitor for NASA
Astronaut wearing a biomonitor
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Specifications

• Monitor vital parameters related to heart, brain
  and muscle activity, as well as oxygen saturation
  in hemoglobin and radiation exposure.
• Equipped with a sound and visible alarm in case
  any of these parameters reach a dangerous level.
• Size will be miniaturized, designed not to
  interfere with any physical activities, and will
  have appropriate mechanical robustness.

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Specifications (cont)

• It will include a telemetry system for continuous
  recording of bio-signals within a PC or external
  storage device.
• Resist electromagnetic interference (as might be
  encountered near other electrical equipment /
  antennas / environment), as well as produce
  minimal electromagnetic interference itself.
• Under the worst case scenario of failure, the
  device will pose no electrical or chemical risk
  to the user

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System Design

• Signal conditioning (amplification filtering)
  for
• Electrocardiography
• Electromyography

• Electroencephalography
• Oxygen saturation
• Radiation exposure sensors.

Amplification
Signal Processing
Transmission
Acquisition
Block Diagram of biomonitor system
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• Stand alone device designed with a programmable
  microcontroller (Texas Instruments) 12.00
• Low power consumption
• Digitization of biosignals in real time
• Digital filters
• Custom operation software
• Calculation of Heart Rate and trends
• Visual and Sound Alarms
• Numerical values visualized in a built-in liquid
  crystal display (LCD).

Texas Instruments Microcontroller
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Prototype Development
Electronic Prototype
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Prototype Testing
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Future Work

• Custom casing
• Wireless transmission protocol
• Development of head-strap to hold oxygen
  saturation sensor and EEG electrodes
• Low weight battery (rechargeable)
• Analysis of heart rate variability

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References

• 1 Prutchi Norris. Design and Development of
  Medical Electronic Instrumentation. Wiley and
  Sons 2005.
• 2 Schaumann and Van Valkenburg. Design of analog
  filters.Oxford University Press 2001
• 3 Luecke. Analog and digital Circuits for
  Electronic Controlsystem Applications. Using the
  TI MSP430 Microcontroller.Newnes 2005.
• 4 www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2004/rd_2.html

Acknowledgments

• Support provided by
• The NASA-NY Space Grant Consortium from NASA's
  Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and
• The Biomedical Engineering Department of The City
  College of The City University of New York.