Jackie Lin
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Ruchi Sharma
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Biomedical / Engineering
Program:
Authors: Jackie Lin, Ava Fischer, Ruchi Sharma
Session: Session 6: 3:40 pm – 4:30 pm
Poster: 73
Abstract
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are gasses emitted continuously from the human body through breath and body odors. They can be monitored and used to diagnose different health problems. The current diagnosis methods for various diseases are mostly invasive and are not real-time. This project utilizes the development of gas chromatography to detect VOC; it involves LabView programming, mechanics, robotics, and biological information. Using gas chromatography allows us to recognize different health issues by projecting the VOC chromatograph onto a device we can analyze. The VOCs detected in each sample can help reduce respiratory, dermatologic, pediatric, and cardiovascular illnesses by detecting them early. The question we are trying to answer from our research is, how can we create a device that recognizes volatile organic compounds to contribute to preventative healthcare? Our project aims to engineer a device that can eventually be used at home and in physicians’ offices to recognize a variety of health problems more efficiently. The methodologies we use to conduct our project are collecting patient data, primarily breath samples from patients at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and running the data through the device prototype to see the outcomes. A big part of patient sampling is to respect the patient’s privacy and circumstances within the hospital. After running it through the device, we already have a hypothesis of what the data will look like, so as long as the results stay true to our expectations, our patient sampling will be successful. We don’t have any concise conclusions for the device since we are still developing the prototype. The conclusions we may see later on will determine any changes we must make to the prototype.
