7/10/15 How do you see your internship experience benefitting your mentor’s organization?
My internship was with the Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technology (ASSIST). The goal of ASSIST is to incorporate nanotechnology into self-powered wearable devices that monitor the health of individuals and determine the influence of the surrounding environments on health. Nanotechnology entails building materials at the molecular level to improve their function or create new functions. Dr. Jess Jur’s research was explained to us on intricate levels through guest speakers, tours of the diifferent engineering fields and departments, the work of his graduate students and guided and self-explored internet research. The devices that we created may offer insights into the wearability and functions that may be incorporated into future products, benefitting patients who require this type of surveillance. These devices provides trends or patterns of patient data through on-going monitoring, rather than the 15-20-minute vitals collected during a health care visitation. The ASSIST Team might modify our products to design functional wearables, thus saving time in the ideation process, money and research.
This information is linked to the One-Health Initiative: the collaboration of heath professionals in monitoring the health of humans, animals and the environment. Being able to monitor the health of animals has many benefits to livestock, pets and wildlife. We, as humans, should accept our responsibilty to care for animals, whether they benefit us directly, indirecly or not at all. With our knowledge of zoonotic diseases, we should take more steps to prevent transmission of these agents and care for the sick before major outbreaks occur. Colaboration is key in achieving this goal and centralizing that knowledge so that all involved parties can access it when making decisions about health and disease prevention and outbreaks.
Wearable devices have been incorporated into animal research to monitor aspects of their health, feeding, migrations and populations.This research continues to gather cues about their survival and adaptability to environmental stressors. The development of our collective RET wearables represents the contribution of more ideas to this research pool. Our individual group’s project focused on creating a heat sensor to detect and prevent the dangerous effects of heat, specifically heat exhausion and heat strokes. The concept of our wearable devices can be translated into animal applications for prevention of heat effects, whether they are pets, livestock or wildlife.
As we share this knowledge with our students, we challenge them to create their own wearable devices. This process will enable them to brainstorm, ideate and make changes in their products. Perhaps they will imagine uses based on their experiences and needs and those by which they are affected. It is very likely that their ideas may be the ones that are put into usuable forms that can benefit the ASSIST Program for humans, animals or even the environment. Our mentor also wanted us to get the word out about his research and the ASSIST Program thus generating more support, financially and otherwise. He is constantly searching for businesses to sponsor his research, thus continuing his efforts. This week he spoke with the Under Armour Corporation to secure funding for more research, reinforcing the idea that selling one’s product is vital to continuing research programs.