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The National Science Foundation has awarded Lafayette a $213,610 grant that will enhance bioengineering research and classroom learning opportunities for students. It also is expected to attract and retain more women in the mechanical engineering field.
The two-year grant is funding equipment that will benefit eight classes enrolling 75 students each year, including courses in which individual students conduct their own intensive research projects under the guidance of one of more professors for a semester or entire school year. In addition, students will collaborate with faculty on bioengineering research through Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students assist professors with research while earning a stipend. Many of the 180 student participants each year share their findings in academic journals and/or conferences.
The new equipment includes an eight-camera image system and software for studying human motion, and a radio-frequency generator with electrodes and specialized temperature-measuring equipment for researching a method of reducing or eliminating tumors through radio-frequency currents. It will provide students with training for research applied to health problems and ergonomic design, the latter of which involves maximizing productivity by designing equipment that reduces operator fatigue and discomfort.
The resources will aid research of human motion in sports, the workplace, and daily activities, according to Steven Nesbit, associate professor and head of mechanical engineering, who applied for the grant with the assistance of Erol Ulucakli, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Ira Katz, director of mechanical engineering laboratories and chemical hygiene coordinator.
“This research is useful in understanding the relationship between individuals and their equipment, the enhancement of performance, and the determination and prevention of injuries,” he says. “The radio-frequency ablation study will apply fundamental knowledge related to electromagnetic theory and heat transfer to biological tissue.”
Areas of application for the radio-frequency study include treatment of certain tumors; cardiac arrhythmias, irregularities in the force or rhythm of the heartbeat; benign prostatic hyperplasia, a nonmalignant enlargement of the prostate gland commonly occurring in men after age 50, and sometimes leading to compression of the urethra and obstruction of the flow of urine; and endometriosis, an often painful condition characterized by abnormal tissue outside the uterus. Other areas include microwave balloon angioplasty, the surgical repair of a blood vessel, either by inserting a balloon-tipped catheter to unblock it or by reconstructing or replacing part of the vessel; and radio-frequency heating of the cornea.
Prior to receiving the grant, Lafayette already had renovated two research laboratories dedicated to bioengineering research. A minor in bioengineering/biotechnology recently has been established, combining courses from the mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, biology, and chemistry departments. Nesbit believes the bioengineering/biotechnology field is particularly attractive to women students.
“The prospect of attracting and retaining women in the mechanical engineering program, as well as giving them appealing research opportunities, [was] a prime motivation for submitting [the grant] proposal,” he says.
Lafayette has an excellent record of attracting and retaining outstanding women engineering students. Last year, women received about 31% of the degrees Lafayette awarded in engineering. Nationally, women make up approximately 19% of those receiving a bachelor’s degree in engineering, according to a 2002 National Science Foundation report.
Over the past three years, four of seven women mechanical engineering students involved in research activities have participated in bioengineering projects. Nesbit believes that relating mechanical engineering to the biological sciences will draw more women to the program and result in more women pursuing research in bioengineering and continuing their studies in graduate school.
Nesbit will direct human motion studies in the field of biomechanics, which also encompasses the external and internal forces acting on the human body and the effects of those forces.
“This applies to the fundamental understanding of human motion, the relationship between a person and an implement of some sort, the enhancement of motion performance, and the determination and prevention of injuries,” he says. “The equipment and softwarewill be used to create a biomechanics research and teaching laboratory.”
Nesbit’s experience in biomechanics includes a study for the United States Golf Association on how altering certain parameters affects the swing of a golfer. In addition to several publications from 1994-2003, the study led to development of a biomechanics laboratory at the USGA Testing and Research Facility and creation of an accurate and variable full-body computer model of a golfer.
Nesbit has involved more than a dozen students in his human motion research, most of whom have earned master’s degrees after co-authoring a journal and/or conference paper with him. Seven of the students joined him as a patent co-inventor. His recent publications include a paper presented to the International Association of Science and Technology for Development’s International Conference on Modeling and Simulation and a coauthored article accepted for upcoming publication by the Journal for Engineering Education.
In addition to his work with the USGA, Nesbit’s consulting and research areas have included patent infringement in computer modeling and analysis of exercise equipment and human athletic motion, automated manufacturing, specific alloys, robotics, and mechanisms/engines.
A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1990, Nesbit earned his bachelor’s (cum laude), master’s, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University in 1982, 1985, and 1988, respectively.
Ulucakli will lead studies of radio-frequency treatment of tumors and other unwanted tissue. In this method, electromagnetic energy is directed to the tissue to be destroyed via a catheter. The desired injury to the tissue takes place when the temperature around the tip of the catheter reaches about 50ºC. Understanding and controlling the temperature distribution in the tissue is crucial to prevent overheating the healthy tissue surrounding the lesion.
Ulucakli’s research program will investigate the engineering and biological aspects of this process. Experiments will involve directing radio-frequency currents and investigating the resulting temperature distribution in lesions and possible “hot spots.” Factors to be studied include the power characteristics of the radio-frequency generator, electrical properties of the connecting wires and catheter, size of the electrode, current and voltage applied, duration of energy application, electrode tip temperature, tissue structure, heat transfer properties of the tissue, and more.
In addition to publishing his own research, Ulucakli has served as co-editor of seven conference proceedings since 1997, including that of last year’s International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exhibition in New Orleans. He has organized and chaired technical sessions for the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Expositions and the National Heat Transfer Conferences. He has created and taught five courses at Lafayette, as well as developing three research programs.
A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1988, Ulucakli earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from University of Michigan in 1987 and his bachelor’s/master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Technical University of Istanbul, Turkey in 1961.
Katz, who will play a key role in maintaining the new equipment, has published his research in academic journals and conference proceedings. He is one of three engineers working on a book for Oxford University Press, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics. Joining Lafayette in August 2001, Katz earned his Ph.D. and master’s in mechanical engineering from Duke University in 1988 and 1985, respectively, and his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from University of Florida in 1980.