My Benefit to Dr. Jur and the ASSIST Center

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I have spent the past five weeks in ah with the amount of information, knowledge, and experience my mentor has shared with the Kenan Fellows. I had the privilege to visit over 10 organizations and labs with exposure to the world of textiles, engineering, nanotechnology, prototyping, and the beautiful Hunt Library. It is so easy to reflect on my experience with the ASSIST center but in this reflection I am going to share how my experience will benefit Dr. Jur’s vision and mission.

Dr. Jur has shared several of the ASSIST’s goals with his mentees. I have taken the ASSIST vision and mission from the website, as one can see it will be quite difficult to paraphrase the in-depth vision and mission statements.

The NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center (NERC) for Advanced Self-               Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST) develops and employs nano-enabled energy harvesting, energy storage, nanodevices and sensors to create innovative battery-free, body-powered, and wearable health monitoring systems.

VISION

We envision a paradigm shift in health informatics enabled by wearable nanotechnologies that monitor individual health parameters and environmental exposures. Long-term sensing will enable patients, doctors, and scientists to make direct correlations between health and environmental toxins leading to chronic disease prediction, management and treatment. ASSIST advances will accelerate environmental health research and clinical trials as well as inform environmental policy.

MISSION

Use nanotechnology to improve global health by enabling correlation between personal health and personal environment and by empowering patients and doctors to manage wellness and improve quality of life.

 

I have used the past five weeks and will continue on into the school year exploring and teaching my students about global health and improving our quality of life. This week I have completed two lesson plans that are now branded ASSIST. Dr. Jur will add these lesson plans and demonstrations to the center’s resources to aid in teaching others about sensors, prototyping, LittleBits, and energy harvesting solutions. The second way my internship will benefit the ASSIST center will come in conveying and sharing the ASSIST vision/mission with my students and their families. I will take my lessons into my classroom and share the following objectives with my students.

Once students complete lesson 1 on one health and the TI sensortag:

  • Students will be able to evaluate the properties of colors and materials as measured by illuminance as well as temperature.
  • Informally assess the degree of visual overlap of two numerical data distributions with similar variabilities, measuring the difference between the centers by expressing it as a multiple of a measure of variability.

Once students complete lesson 2 on LittleBits and proportions:

  • Students will use a variety of tools to solve real world mathematical problems with positive rational numbers in any form.
  • Students will students explore the concept of a ratio, make tables of equivalent ratios, and solve unit problems.
  • Students will develop a model using LittleBits to generate data for iterative testing