{"id":20265,"date":"2024-06-04T14:10:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T18:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=20265"},"modified":"2024-06-10T10:08:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T14:08:38","slug":"a-primate-proof-monkey-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2024\/06\/a-primate-proof-monkey-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"A Primate-Proof Monkey Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Greg Wulffen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In theory, taking an EKG just requires placing a small plastic-tipped electrodes on a patient\u2019s skin to detect electrical impulses from the heart. But the procedure becomes far more complex when the patients are active, curious chimpanzees\u2014who suffer from similar heart conditions to humans.<\/p>\n

The challenge facing Greg Wulffen, a combined BS in mechanical engineering and MS in engineering management student: Design an EKG tool that could be used on chimps at the Maryland Zoo\u2014or, rather, used by the chimps themselves. The zoo\u2019s one requirement: Make it primate-proof.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing we did when tackling this project was to think of all the ways a chimp might try to destroy it, and focus in on that,\u201d says Wulffen, who inherited the Multidisciplinary Engineering Design project\u2014known as PulseApe\u2014from a team that had started it three years earlier.<\/p>\n

Alissa Burkholder Murphy<\/a>, senior lecturer in the Center for Leadership Education<\/a> and director of the Multidisciplinary Design<\/a> program, revived the project last year. She says that Wulffen and Mirza Korman \u201923, took the original team\u2019s ingenious prototype to the next level: \u201cThey hit it out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

At issue were the delicate electronics housed at the center of the bar, which were not yet well-protected \u201cfrom the fingers or teeth of the prying primates.\u201d Using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software, Wulffen came up with a sheath made of Delrin\u2014a thermoplastic that has a high-fracture toughness\u2014that slides over a cut-out in the center for the electronics and coated the handles with copper. The team then made the entire device wireless, using Bluetooth, and refined the interface so a zookeeper could easily decode and extract the EKG data.<\/p>\n

After the zoo confirmed that all materials were safe, the time came to try out the device on the intended subject: an energetic chimpanzee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first run-through overall went well, and we got a reading from one of the chimps,\u201d says Pam Carter, area manager for the Chimpanzee Forest at the Maryland Zoo. \u201cI think we\u2019re the only place getting EKGs this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wulffen is now using his expertise for a Multidisciplinary Design project at the National Aquarium, where he is part of a team designing a durable, corrosion-resistant device to allow visitors to interact with a new underwater Wetlands Exhibit. This summer, he will take those problem-solving skills to Tesla, where he is interning with the company\u2019s Technical Program Management team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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