Design Day, set for Tuesday, May 2 at the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center, is the Whiting School of Engineering’s annual showcase of students’ ability to apply knowledge and skills accumulated in classrooms and labs to real-world design challenges. This year, students in ChemBE’s spring semester design and process design classes were tasked with identifying a problem or need and developing solution that incorporates chemical and biomolecular engineering concepts. Teams will present posters detailing their design concepts, and each department is given an award for best presentation. A combination of science fair and Shark Tank, Design Day is enjoyed by Johns Hopkins students, faculty, and staff members, as well as representatives of local businesses and people in the engineering community, who come to observe and provide feedback.
Projects being presented at this year’s event include:
Coffee Tablets: Ashwin Pasupathy, Oliver Tang, Grant Walnoha
Coffee pods have become a popular option for a quick cup, but require the addition of cream and sweetener for those who don’t drink their java black. This team is designing coffee pods comprising instant coffee powder, milk powder, and sugar coated in a polyvinyl alcohol film that is water soluble and edible. The team describes it as like a Tide Pod, but for coffee instead of detergent (Tide Pods are also made of PVA film). The goal is to make a more sustainable, more convenient, and better tasting alternative to instant coffee, which can be either cumbersome to scoop out of a big bottle or wasteful to use one at a time.
JSM^2: Sarah Kanner, Morgan Wang, Maureen Chan, John Liu
Hearing aids are not waterproof, which presents a limitation on their use and adaptability. This team is designing a hearing aid that’s waterproof up to about 10 feet that utilizes hydrophobic materials. The hearing aid would also have Bluetooth connectivity for streaming and phone calls, wireless charging, a sealed battery compartment, and a life of up to six years.
Gummy-Formulated Anxiety Medication: Stephanie Brown, Helena Hall-Thomsen, Oluwafolahanmi Koleosho, Gisselle Negron
Nearly six million children suffer from anxiety, but some are unable or unwilling to swallow pills that can assist in therapy. This team aims to create a product that can more readily deliver psychiatric medication to those children, in chewable form. The team focused on sertraline as it’s one of the most frequently prescribed anti-depression/anti-anxiety medications for children. They are working on 3D printing the mold to cast the gummies in the appropriate size and shape for dosage to children.
Mosquito Repellent Pill : Chibuzo Osakwe, Stephanie Tang, Kinsey Thorpe, Carl Vonnoh
Mosquito bites and mosquito borne diseases cause discomfort and potential lifelong consequences for those bitten, and current mosquito repellents are either produced from harsh chemicals or require constant reapplication throughout the day. This team’s repellent pill would be a small gel capsule containing a natural supplement made from methyl pyruvate, benzyl acetoacetate, and phenethyl propionate—three extracts from peristeria elata (better known as the holy ghost orchid), lychee, and guava, respectively. This allows consumers to have a natural option that isn’t composed of harsh chemicals.
Hist-Alert: Lauren Conway, Fisher Gandel, Jimmy Hu, Margaret Wang
This device is a compound anaphylaxis detection and immediate epinephrine administration system, which features a continuous histamine monitor that can be attached to the arm and a signal-activated injector for epinephrine on the upper thigh.
True Tissue: Alexandra Mo, Daniel Labbe, Gabriel Blanco, Steven Liu
This team aims to solve the issues that come with total knee replacement surgery due to arthritis. True Tissue is designed to mimic natural knee articular and meniscus cartilage and would offer a full range of motion, even for strenuous activities. It integrates with the patient’s body and is made to last for a lifetime. This would not require filing down bone and drilling into the femur and tibia. The material would be two sheets of live tissue-engineered cartilage derived from stem cells which are differentiated into cartilage sheets in a bioreactor.
TB Screening Device: Emily Kulp, Isaac Diaz, Mike Gruianu, Shubhangy Raghavan
Getting tested for tuberculosis can be a time-intensive process that can require a clinic visit. This team would make the test quick, cost effective, and possible to do at home. The patient would use a nasal swab to collect a sample and add it to a bottle of solvent before adding it onto a test strip, similar to the COVID rapid tests. The test strip is fitted with gold nanoparticles that are conjugated to the Ag85 antibody which is specific to the antigen found in tuberculosis. On detection of a positive sample, the gold nanoparticles would exhibit a color change, indicating a positive test.
No Stain, No Pain!: Shanelle Cao, Kieren Collins, Judy Jeong, Ashley Tang
Blood stains on undergarments can be an issue during the menstrual cycle. This team aims to make blood stain removal easier and more accessible. The concept is a dual-tipped pen-type stain remover that consists of two solutions, one being an active stain-removing solution and the other being a deactivating solution. For stain removal an enzyme called trypsin, used in the detergent industry, is employed, along with a collection of surfactants. The deactivating side contains trypsin inhibitors to prevent skin irritation.
SNaP Relief: Ben Biggs, Kristen Liu, Andrew Tran, Anica Jones
When taken orally in their tablet form, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are known to cause upper GI side effects (which sometimes cause serious complications) in up to 60% of osteoarthritis patients. This team’s product is an ultrasound-sensitive nanobubble containing the NSAID diclofenac, and provides targeted delivery of the drug to the joints of osteoarthritis patients. The product would use a stable lipid nanobubble that only opens and releases the drug when exposed to specific ultrasound frequencies. SNaP Relief would have the same pain-relieving anti-inflammatory properties of NSAIDs, without the risk of harmful side effects seen in other routes of drug delivery.
AlphAlgae: Tony Megalla, Tiara Safaei, Faiza Shaik, Reid Xu
EverGlove: Franklin Hsu, Patricia Nwoga, Sam Shin, Roy Sun, Connor Wang
Color-pH-ul Sutures: Sidh Chaudhary, Nicole Jimenez, Michelle Mokaya, Ashley Shay
Aptamer-based Gluten Detector: Derin Adeleke, Jodie Deng, George Doulos, Mason Gareis
Aeroveil: Erick Reyes, Ashlin Ferris, Osiris Peralta, Laine Wang
Geck-On Adhesives: Nithya Badarinath, Alex Correa, Michael Fujita, Jenna Wolfanger
Quick Check: Devan Patel, Elena Skarupski, Ivana Tang, Jonathan Yip
Pure Lash: Shahad Ashkanani, Nathaniel Chavez, Sage Hester, Javier Romanelli