SUBJECT: Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
   
BY: Saswat Mishra
   
TIME: Monday, December 3, 2018, 11:00 a.m.
   
PLACE: Pettit Microelectronics, 102A
   
TITLE: Soft Material-Enabled Flexible Electronics for Disease Diagnostics, Therapeutics, and Healthcare
   
COMMITTEE: Dr. Woon-Hong Yeo, Chair (ME)
Dr. Peter Hesketh (ME)
Dr. Todd Sulchek (ME)
Dr. Markondeyaraj Pulugurtha (ECE)
Dr. Seung Woo Lee (ME)
 

SUMMARY

The United States healthcare costs are approaching half a trillion dollars annually while mortality rates continue to rise from neurodegenerative and systemic diseases. Preemptive and therapeutics care is an alternative to expensive surgeries in order to reduce costs. Popularity with wearable devices enables in vivo biosensing platforms, but the existing devices are heavy, rigid, and bulky which inherently disrupts high-quality data recording and causes discomfort. This proposal optimizes the mechanics and materials for a soft material platform integrated with open-mesh, serpentine structures for extreme flexibility and stretchability. Mechanical integration of these sensors and devices is enabled by printing techniques using photolithography and aerosol jet printing. Ultimately these sensors enable preventative care which is half the problem for exorbitant health care costs so we dwelled into a wearable platform for ocular therapy systems enabled by electrooculograms. Our therapeutic platform aims to facilitate users from debilitating diseases such as Parkinson disease and convergence insufficiency. Our wearable “skin-like” electrodes enhance the recording and classification of ocular signals to control a wheelchair for Parkinson disease patients. Additionally, a similar platform enables us to record contrasting eye vergence motions with a virtual reality headset for home-based visual therapy. In this proposal, a set of materials, mechanics, and system integration methods is presented and discussed to unite preemptive and therapeutic care using electrooculograms with wearable devices.