New Maker Space Helping Students Craft Life-Changing Medical Devices - USC Viterbi | School of Engineering

The Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering’s new Innovation Space will be an incubator for the future of medical technology.

Professor Gerald Loeb in the electronics workshop in the Alfred E. Mann Department’s new Innovation Space. Image/Greta Harrison

Deep in the basement of USC’s Denney Research Center, an exciting new project is taking shape. USC Viterbi students Sam Doane and Tej Desai have been hard at work troubleshooting the intricate alignment mechanism of a potentially revolutionary new prosthetic leg for children. The joint hasn’t quite been performing as expected.

Fortunately, Doane and Desai have access to a world-leading medical device expert, Professor of Biomedical Engineering Gerald Loeb, who is on hand to offer them advice and solutions. The new lab space they are working in has all the equipment they could need to take a medical device like theirs to the next level — from drills, lathes, and other machinery to electronics and 3D Printers.

Welcome to the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering’s Innovation Space — USC’s new one-stop-shop for medical technology development.

The department launched the space this year, converting equipment and rooms previously part of Loeb’s Medical Device Development Facility into a student-facing maker space. The facility consists of three fully-kitted-out laboratories: a 3D printing lab, an electronics workshop and a machine shop. A chemistry space will be added this year.

Loeb said the facility aimed to offer vital hands-on training to prepare students for careers in the biomedical technology industry. He added that the space complements the increased project course offerings for undergraduate and master’s students under the direction of senior lecturer John Mai.

“We have a lot of computer-aided engineering tools that let people make pretty pictures, and those pretty pictures are then sent off to fabrication houses to build,” Loeb said. “But it’s important for the engineer who’s designing it to know how it’s going to be built, what is possible to build, to think about how it goes together and how it will be serviced, whether the materials and methods they’re using are most efficient, whether they’re going to be easily approved by regulatory authorities — all the things that are important to practical products, which eventually they’re going to be involved in making or selling or servicing.”

The 3D printing workshop in the Innovation Space. Image/James Jung Yoo.

The new space is open to any students associated with biomedical engineering, from undergraduates to graduates, and those undertaking design subjects in BME. Access is also open to those outside biomedical engineering working in BME-associated labs or on med-tech projects.

Loeb said students also use the space as part of USC’s MEDesign Club, an incubator for med-tech projects and competitions, for which he serves as a faculty advisor.

“If any of these projects look like they’ve got legs to actually become commercial products, and we’ve certainly seen some of those, it would be great to support them,” Loeb said.

Managing day-to-day operations and user training and safety is James Jung Yoo, instructional laboratory manager in the Alfred E. Mann Department. Yoo said that the 3D print shop was ideal for helping students bring their designs to life, with faculty and staff on hand to help with technical support. He added that a highlight of the electronics workshop was a new CO2 laser cutter, which was perfect for cutting through plastics and wood or engraving metal.

“The electronics workshop has several soldering irons and other passive components. We have a huge inventory from years and years of design courses, where students would order the equipment, and as a result we have a lot left over,” Yoo said. “We would like to support both students and research labs with all their fabrication needs. I know that throughout my grad school days, I really needed a machine shop like this one.”

Professional engineers Sam Kohan and Ray Peck also provide practical advice and assistance as students build working prototypes of their designs.

Loeb advises Desai and Doane on their prosthetic leg project. Image/Greta Harrison.

Doane and Desai are part of USC Viterbi’s MEDesign Club. They are the co-design team leads for the ADA Prosthetics team, tackling a complex issue faced by families with children requiring prosthetics. Their goal: To create an adjustable and customizable prosthetic leg for pediatric patients at a lower price point.

As many parents know, children can grow very rapidly. This poses a unique challenge for those who need to use a prosthetic leg. How can you offer them a competitively-priced device with the gradual height customizability their growing body may need from month to month?

Currently, a pre-teen child will need a replacement prosthetic leg every 8-12 months. Without insurance, that leg can cost up to $50,000, with additional expenses of up to $30,000 for fitting and maintenance by a professional prosthetist — a significant burden on families.

Doane, Desai and their teammates have risen to the challenge by developing a prototype with the capacity for finer adjustments.

“Normally, when adolescents need a below-the-knee prosthetic, they have to go in to get it pretty consistently adjusted as they’re growing, and that’s a big expense, and it takes up a lot of time. The idea of this project is making a prosthetic that is easily adjusted by the families themselves,” Doane said.

The team is currently fine-tuning the leg’s alignment mechanism, which is critical to ensuring the patient’s knee aligns correctly with the prosthetic to optimize their gait and not cause them discomfort. The ultimate aim is to get the device ready for field testing.

Doane and Desai are grateful for the easy access to the knowledge and expertise of faculty like Loeb, as well as the lab space and equipment that the new Innovation Space will provide their team, and the other MEDesign startups.

“I think that the best resources here are definitely the professors — the people who know a lot more than the students do,” Doane said. “Making use of places like the maker space has been very important. A lot of the pipes in our product were lathed a few years ago. They weren’t lathed as well as they could have been because we were doing it by ourselves.”

“The collaborative aspect is definitely the best,” Desai added. “Being able to work with the grad students — them giving us advice — that technical aspect has been super helpful.”

The BME Innovation Space’s machine shop features drill presses, grinders, saws, a numerically controlled mill and more. Image/James Jung Yoo.

Another student project that has taken shape in the Innovation Space is the BRAVE band device, which keeps young people safe by allowing them to instantly send distress signals and a map of their location to groups of their friends.

Yoo said that the facility provided valuable practical experience in the key techniques that go into the creation of parts for biomedical devices.

“I think a lot of times it can be frustrating. For example, with 3D printing, you put in a model and what you get out of it is not exactly the same, because that’s just how a machine works. It’s not always going to be perfect,” Yoo said. “Students have to figure out what that difference is, given the machine you’re using, and how we can manipulate those differences between idea and reality. I think that’s what makes a good engineer.”

For Loeb, the facility is a significant boost to the Mann Department, in the wake of the historic $35 million naming gift from the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering.

“Through the naming grant, and through funds that have been provided to support the student labs, the innovation space, the MEDesign Club, we now have an opportunity to provide not just a space and not just equipment, but engineering expertise, which is probably even more important,” Loeb said.

USC Viterbi’s VNN recently toured the new Innovation Space. Watch the episode below:

Published on October 24th, 2024

Last updated on October 24th, 2024