College of Engineering and Computer Science

Mentor Bio

Katya Mkrtchyan is an assistant professor in Computer Science Department at California State University Northridge. She received her Ph.D. in 2016 from University of California, Riverside in Computer Science, M.S. in 2008 from Yerevan State University of Armenia in Informatics and Applied Mathematics, and B.S. in 2006 from Yerevan State University of Armenia in Mathematics. Her research is in computer vision and image processing with concentration on biomedical image analysis.

Title of Research Project

Automated Video-Analysis of Behavior Quantification on Human Odor by Mosquitoes

Background and Purpose

Mosquitoes and other blood-feeding insects are considered one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet because of their ability to spread deadly diseases. Biologists are trying to find solutions to prevent, control or treat these diseases. Mosquitoes host seeking behavior is important, as it is at the core of the processes involved in the contact between a fly and a human. In laboratory conditions, it is easy to have thousands of mosquitoes under different experimental conditions. One of these experiments aims to discover the reaction of mosquitoes around different odors, for which a special environment is created. These experiments were performed with mosquitoes held in cages with a glass top. A human arm was inserted in a glove containing a window covered with a double-layer of netting. Attraction towards the arm was measured using video recordings, which was done through the glass top.  The count of the mosquitoes is used to describe the interest of the mosquitoes to each odor. The current manual analysis on these videos is not sufficient for quantitative analysis and available object counting approaches do not work well. The proposed research project is about creating an automated object counting method for counting mosquitoes captured in video. The results of this study would be of considerable biological importance.

Method

In this research we are creating automated video analysis software that can count mosquitoes from videos. The framework of the software is going to be comprised of several modules, which are; finding ROI (Region of Interest in each frame of the video), training and testing of a classifier to detect mosquitoes. The proposed framework will design mosquito feature to get the best classification results.

Student Roles

Students will get to work on a STEM research project, which blends biology, technology and mathematics. Students will target good conferences and journals in computer science and image processing.

Mentor Bio

I have been running projects on this campus for many years, and I am getting into the 9th year of a mentoring program at the College of Engineering and Computer Science. My industrial experience combined with my academic experience and my mentoring experience help me recognize the value of the collaboration and its mentorship component. Research areas include Electrical Machines and Energy Conversion, Electric Power Systems, Power Electronics, Fault Analysis in Power Systems, and Power Distribution Systems. All these areas have the environment and sustainability in common, and consequently increasing the quality of life. M.S.E.E 1978, University of Colorado B.S.E.E 1970, Polytechnic Institute of Technology Mexico City.

Background and Purpose

The goal of the project is to research renewable energy and its impact on the environment as well as electromagnetic fields’ effects on human beings caused by the exposure to energy generation, transmission, and distribution.

Research Questions or Hypothesis

Exposure to electromagnetic fields has been discussed in the literature as a source of cancer. We intent to analyze magnetic fields’ strengths related to voltage. Furthermore, this research might lead to the study of environmental impacts on carbon dioxide reduction and its impact on health.

Method

The proposed research requires use of quantitative research methods. My background in engineering will allow me to deal with software and hardware as needed to carry on this research. An extensive literature review will be necessary to focus on the exact approach for this research.

Analytic Process

The correlation of magnetic field and voltage is the key to determine exposure and strength of radiation. We intent to use software to simulate magnetic fields measuring their strength at certain distance and correlate it with guidelines given by government agencies as well as industry.

Student Roles

This research can be adapted to juniors and/or seniors in engineering and science fields. Students can apply their knowledge in certain areas, such as calculus, programing, excel, MS office, chemistry, biology, etc. I intent to have a team to do this research if possible.

Conferences Typically Atttended

National and Regional ASEE (American society of engineering education), IEEE industry applications.

Mentor Bio

John Valdovinos is an assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at California State University Northridge. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles in Biomedical Engineering in 2014. In addition, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine under the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2015. Professor Valdovinos has expertise is in the design of circulatory support medical devices for adult and pediatric heart failure patients. In his three years at CSUN, Professor Valdovinos has supervised a various senior design teams and served as a mentor for students participating in programs like BUILD PODER and AIMS2. Professor Valdovinos also serves as the faculty mentor for the CSUN Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and as a board member of the Diversity Committee for the Biomedical Engineering Society. Ph.D. 2014, University of California Los Angeles M.S. 2010, University of California Los Angeles B.S. 2009, University of Southern California.

Background and Purpose

There have been great advancements in the design and implantability of medical devices that can monitor and assist patients with various cardiovascular diseases. While the miniaturization of electronics has enabled these medical technologies to become fully implantable, their lifespan is still limited by the batteries that power them. Often, batteries necessitate eventual re-operation to replace the unpowered devices. The focus of my research at California State University, Northridge is on the development of wireless powering technologies that can improve the implantability of therapeutic cardiovascular devices. This entails utilizing traditional radio-frequency (RF) electrical systems (also known as transcutaneous energy transfer systems, TETs) as well as integrating the use of smart material like piezoelectric and magnetostrictive materials to miniaturize and power implantable medical devices.

Research Projects

My research will focus on two thrusts.

The first thrust focuses on powering traditionally low-power cardiovascular devices like pacemakers and other stimulators with magnetoelectric structures (essentially piezoelectric and magnetostrictive composites). This technology will allow for miniaturized receivers that can extract power from an outer transmitter to recharge or continuously power these small devices without sacrificing their small foot print. Magnetoelectric receivers can accomplish this because of their large energy density and excellent coupling between piezoelectric and magnetostrictive phases.

The second thrust will focus on improving the wireless technology for powering higher-power devices like blood pumps for patients with heart failure. The aim of this thrust is to improve current close range wireless powering systems to achieve higher efficiency and longer range for powering the device. This can have implications on the development of intravascular blood pumps that can eventually be continuously recharged or powered. This will be achieved by utilizing ferromagnetic materials like Metlgas to increase the efficiency and coupling between a receiving antenna and transmitting antenna.

Student Roles

Undergraduate students will play a key role in these projects. As sophomores, students will learn about real-world applications of classes they have taken like ECE 240 (Fundamentals of EE). During this time, students will get familiar with the research process, including literature reviews, keeping a laboratory notebook, contributing to group discussions/collaborations and using design software like Cadence and COMSOL Multiphysics. They will also gain some familiarity with the equipment that is used in the lab. I have access to the Printed Circuit Board Lab (JD 1564), which houses my 3D printer (for prototyping) and other equipment like pediatric blood pump, Metglas magnetic core ribbon, and electrical measuring equipment. During their Junior and Senior years, students will be involved in designing and prototyping devices and test rigs as well as planning and carrying out experiments.

Expectations

The hope in the future is that these students will also experience the work it takes to design a medical device from start to in-vivo implantation in an animal (via our future collaborations with UCLA and Yale Schools of Medicine).

Conferences Typically Attended

Annual Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting (held in September/October every year), IEEE EMBS (Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society), and ASAIO (American Society of Artificial Internal Organs, held in June) Conferences. 

Publications

Dr. Valdovinos’s publications can be found on his CV.

Mentor Bio

Dr. Bingbing Li is an Assistant Professor in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, and Director of the Laboratory for Sustainable and Additive Manufacturing (LSAM). Ph.D. 2012, Texas Tech University M.A. 2008, Hefei University of Technology B.A. 2005, Hefei University of Technology. His research focus is in Additive Manufacturing, Smart Manufacturing, and Environmental Sustainability for Manufacturing. http://www.ecs.csun.edu/~bingbing/ 

Title of Research Project

3D Bioprinting of Scaffolds and Tissue Regeneration

Background and Purpose

The objective of biomedically relevant research in LSAM is to enable 3D printing of plastics, metals, functional biomaterials, cells and supporting components into complex medical implants and functional living tissues.

Research Questions or Hypothesis

3D printing is being applied to regenerative medicine to address the need for implants, tissues and organs suitable for transplantation.

Method

Mixed method involving experiments, biofabrications, new materials and processes development. Different 3D printing technologies (including Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Inkjetting, Digital Light Projection (DLP) and Microextrusion) will be applied to fabricate the medical implant, tissues, and organs.

Student Roles

Students will be responsible for experiments setup, biomaterials fabrication, cell culture, ink solution preparation, data collection, preliminary data analysis and presentation.

Expectations

Students will gain a broad set of research-related skills, including experimental design, 3D printing processes, biomaterial science, environmental mentoring, equipment calibration, data analysis and public communication of findings.

Conferences Typically Attended

CSUPERB’s Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium; Annual UC Systemwide Bioengineering Symposium; Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium; CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering; SME North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) and ASME’s Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC).

Collaborations

Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) https://terasaki.org/institute/

Publications

To View Dr. Li’s publications, visit his website: http://www.ecs.csun.edu/~bingbing/publication.html 

Mentor Bio

Dr. Shadi Mahjoob is an Assistant Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department, California State University, Northridge. Her field of expertise and interest is thermofluids sciences and has worked on a wide range of mechanical engineering projects, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), analytical and experimental techniques. She received her BSc and MSc degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) and her PhD degree from University of California, Riverside. She worked as a Postdoctorate Research Scientist, at Nano and Micro-Fluidics Institute (Center of Smart Interface) at TU Darmstadt, Germany. She then joined a company in North California as a Principal Scientist. She is currently an Assistance Prof. at CSUN. Her research expertise and interest include, but not limited to: thermal transport through biological media, cooling of biomedical devices, electronics cooling, heat transfer through porous media, multi phase flow, boiling and phase change, thermal transport in micro-channels and advanced heat exchangers, renewable energy, fan design and testing, rotor aerodynamics, wind and gas turbines, energy recovery systems, jet impingement mixing and film cooling.

Research Project

1. Numerical Investigation of Transport through Biological Media
2. Cooling of Biomedical Devices Employing Conductive Porous Substrates

Research Lab – Thermofluid Research and Design Lab

Background and Purpose

Bioheat transfer is the study of heat transfer through biological tissue. It is one of the important research topics to understand how heat penetrates through tissues and organs during medical thermal therapeutic applications. Knowing accurate temperature distribution within tissues and organ provides a great opportunity to avoid any damages to healthy tissues and to develop new medical devices or treatments to reduce the pain and side effects. One of the principal issues in medical thermal therapeutic applications, such as hyperthermia cancer treatment, is to properly predict temperature variation within biological tissues and body organs subjected to thermal treatment. Hyperthermia treatment is one of the four main cancer therapy techniques following surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation techniques. In hyperthermia, the tumor cells will be overheated to a high value of around 40–45 °C to kill or damage the cancer cells. There are different techniques to provide heat in hyperthermia cancer treatment, including microwave ablation (MWA), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), ultrasound, hot water blankets, and thermal chambers. In this work, modeling of bioheat transport through the tissue/organ will be carried out during microwave and radiofrequency ablation process. The effects of several parameters such as applied hyperthermia heat flux intensity, volume fraction of the vascular space, blood and tissue matrix thermal conductivities, tissue matrix permeability and size, blood pressure and velocity and metabolic heat generation on blood and tissue phase temperatures and thermal transport during the treatment will be investigated. In addition, heat transfer in biomedical devices and in advanced heat management devices for cooling of biomedical devices will be investigated.

Research Questions or Hypothesis

A principal issue in medical thermal therapeutic applications, such as hyperthermia treatment, is modeling and understanding the heat transport and temperature variation within biological tissues and body organs. Biological media generally consist of cells, blood vessels, and interstitial space that categorize as vascular and extra- vascular regions. Biological structure can be modeled as a porous matrix, including cells and interstitial space, called tissue in which the blood flows through. Utilizing the porous media theory, non-thermal equilibrium between the blood and the tissue is addressed and the blood–tissue convective heat exchange is taken into account. In this work, numerical modeling will be performed utilizing CFD (computational fluid dynamic) commercial software. Both local thermal non-equilibrium and local thermal equilibrium models in porous media will be employed in the studies. Experimental and numerical studies are also performed to develop cooling techniques for biomedical devices.

Method

Commercial CFD software such as ANYSY FLUENT will be employed for numerical modeling and advanced techniques in porous media will be utilized. In addition, experimental and numerical studies are performed for development of cooling techniques for biomedical devices.

Student Roles

The sophomore, junior, and senior undergraduate students may assist the graduate students and the PI for developing the experimental set-up, performing experimental measurements, data collection, and post-processing of data while doing literature review, getting involve in numerical simulations and preparing the reports and papers.

Expectations

Enthusiastic students interested in thermofluids sciences, bioheat transfer and cooling of biomedical devices are encouraged to join the lab to perform hands on experimental or computational thermofluid projects. Undergraduate students can gain research experience and assist graduate students to perform research and have research publications or conference presentations. The students should follow all lab regulations and be responsible, on time, self motivated, honest, detail oriented, good listener and reader, and should collaborate properly with other students.   

Conferences Typically Attended

Some of the related conferences the PI attends are CSUPerb conferences (CSU Annual Biotechnology Symposium), ASME conferences such as (Summer Heat Transfer conf.) and IEEE conferences (such as IEEE Itherm conf. and IEEE Sustch conf.).

Publications

Find all publications at her lab website.

Selected Peer Reviewed Journal Publications

• Zing, C., Mahjoob, S. and Vafai, K., “Analysis of porous filled heat exchangers for electronic cooling,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 133, pp. 268-276, April 2019.
• Hardt, S., Herbert, S., Kunkelmann, C., Mahjoob, S., and Stephan, P. “Unidirectional bubble growth in microchannels with asymmetric surface features,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.55, pp. 7056-7062, 2012.
• Mahjoob, S. and Vafai, K., "Analysis of Heat Transfer in Consecutive Variable Cross-Sectional Domains:Applications in Biological Media and Thermal Management," ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 133, pp.011006-1 - 011006-9, 2011.
• Mahjoob, S. and Vafai, K., "Analysis of Bioheat Transport through a Dual Layer Biological Media," ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 132, pp.031101 - 031101-14, 2010.
• Mahjoob, S. and Vafai, K., “Analytical Characterization of Heat Transport through Biological MediaIncorporating Hyperthermia Treatment,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.52, pp. 1608-1618, 2009.
• Mahjoob, S. andVafai, K., “Analytical Characterization and Production of an Isothermal Surface forBiological and Electronic Applications,”ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol.131, pp. 052604-1 - 052604-12, 2009.
• Mahjoob, S. and Vafai, K., “A Synthesis of Fluid and Thermal Transport Models for Metal Foam HeatExchangers,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.51, pp. 3701-3711, 2008.
• Mahjoob, S. and Vafai, K., “Rapid Microfluidic Thermal Cycler for Polymerase Chain Reaction NucleicAcid Amplification,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.51, pp. 2109-2122, 2008.
• Mahjoob, S.,  Taeibi_Rahni,  M.  “Parameters Affecting  Turbulent  Film  Cooling- RANS Computational Simulation,” AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Vol.20, No.1, 2006.
• Mahjoob, S., Mani, M., Taeibi_Rahni, M., “Aerodynamic Analysis of Circular and Non-Circular Bodies UsingComputational and Semi-Empirical Methods,” AIAA Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 41, No. 2, March-April 2004.

Key Words

Bioheat Transfer, CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Hyperthermia, microwave ablation (MWA), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), Cooling of Biomedical Devices

Mentor Bio

Ph.D. 2005, Idaho State University M.A. 2001, Idaho State University B.A. 1998, Andhra University

Background and Purpose

Diabetic mellitus patients have problems with loss of sensation in their feet, insufficient blood flow to lower extremities and alterations in shape of their pressure patterns causing concentrated high pressure regions. These peaks due to dysfunctional feedback system from their mechanoreceptors may lead to complex problems such as amputation if they are not identified and treated in timely manner. Our main objective is to protect the foot by sensing these abnormal peaks and redistribute the pressure from excessive pressure regions.

Research Question(s) or Hypothesis

The foot anatomy and its mechanical loading effects the loading pattern which is very critical to determine the pressure distribution. The research is to create a study of anatomy, and connect the analysis to the foot pressure distribution. The main goal is: Measurement of the plantar pressure and shear forces actively using foot insert and examine the interrelationship of these forces.

Method

In this research we are developing a design prototype for an adaptable shoe insert useful for diabetic foot care and comparing to the existent diabetic foot wears. The proposed design will consider human anatomy and anthropometry of the foot to properly sense the sensory regions during standing and walking. The developed design will be evaluated to the existent diabetic foot care available to validate and for market analysis.

Student Roles

This research will include the pros and cons of the existent technology. It is indeed an STEM multi-disciplinary research opportunity, which gives our undergraduate students a good knowledge and experience of how to integrate the science (biology, physics), technology, engineering and mathematics fundamentals into a biomechanical footwear design for diabetic foot care. The students who are in junior level with understanding of system design and modeling will get a hands-on experience developing and simulating a real world biomedical problem. This will not only help them understand how to relate the mechanical design concepts into biomedical modeling but also use modern computing tools such as Solid works and Matlab to simulate and show the pressure pattern.

Expectations

The students will get an opportunity to present in such organizations giving them a great opportunity to connect with the scientific network. The results will also be published in poster to share the research with the CSUN community. The primary deliverable will be a comprehensive report that provides the detailed design, modeling, and simulation results.

Conferences Typically Attended

The research results will be disseminated to promote the findings to peer reviewed conference proceedings and journals in American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) societies.

Publications

To view her publications, visit her mechanical engineering page.