finalists in the Collegiate Inventors Competition<\/a>, Hahn saw an opportunity to contribute.<\/p>\nThe graduate student team\u2014Adebayo Eisape, Ian McLane, and Valerie Rennoll\u2014wanted to create a \u201csoft electronics\u201d version of their acoustic sensor capable of improving everything from Zoom calls to vital sign monitoring by screening out background noise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a video demonstration of the sensor, and its ability to focus in on the target sound was really impressive,\u201d says Hahn. The team members welcomed her to the project. \u201cWe felt this would be a way to both expose Helena to a new area of research and help with moving the transducer design forward,\u201d Rennoll says.<\/p>\n
Soft electronics are used to build electronic circuits that can bend and conform to various shapes. The original iteration of the sensor includes printed circuit boards, which are rigid, but a soft electronics version would allow the team\u2019s sensor to be used in a device that patients could wear to track their vital signs or for other biomedical uses.<\/p>\n
After reading through a few academic papers, Hahn devised a plan to integrate soft electronics into the team\u2019s existing device using FEP conductive foil: a thin, flexible film that can be cut and stretched.<\/p>\n
She is creating her design for the new version on her computer in her Baltimore County home. Then she will use a \u201ccut-and-paste\u201d method to integrate soft electronics with the acoustic transducer. Unlike alternate approaches for fabricating soft electronics, this method does not require chemicals and can be executed with a Cricut Maker, which is a computer -controlled cutting machine popular in the home crafting community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entire procedure is dry and desktop, so it\u2019s more time- and cost-effective than standard microelectronic fabrication processes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
It is still early days in what is expected to be a yearlong project. So far, Hahn has drafted layout designs and has started practicing with the Cricut Maker, which the West lab provided for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy learning about what the others are up to, and they give me insightful feedback and recommendations on my projects,\u201d Hahn says. \u201cI feel very fortunate to have found a way to participate in research remotely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When COVID-19 forced the shutdown of in-person classes last March, Helena Hahn\u2014a fourth-year student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u2014was anxious to continue conducting research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[5109,5197,5193,5189,5113],"class_list":["post-14768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-helena-hahn","tag-valerie-rennoll","tag-ian-mclane","tag-adebayo-eisape","tag-soft-electronics","issue-winter-2021"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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