2011 Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Inventor Prizes Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Medical and Security Screening Tech [Slide Show]
Automatic gear shifting for safer and more efficient wheelchairs; a technique for harnessing terahertz spectroscopy; "humanized" lab mice; and cheaper, more accurate malaria testing--meet this year's crop of Lemelson-M.I.T. collegiate student prize winners
![2011 Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Inventor Prizes Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Medical and Security Screening Tech [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/A29D64B1-858F-4E50-A19F2CFE340033B4.jpg?w=590&h=393)
2011 Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Inventor Prizes Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Medical and Security Screening Tech [Slide Show]
- SIGNATURE PLEASE: "The plasma can be seen and heard as the laser field causes ionization, or breakdown, of the air," Clough says. "My project focuses on encoding terahertz pulses, used to perform material 'fingerprinting,' into the acoustic waves emitted from this laser-plasma." Terahertz waves are important for three reasons: their ability to determine chemical signatures; penetrate optically opaque materials; and safely scan potentially dangerous objects. COURTESY OF BENJAMIN CLOUGH/RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (R.P.I.)
- UNCHARTED TERRITORY: This image shows the acoustic dish, which can be used from a distance to collect the acoustic pulses that convey the information from the terahertz electromagnetic pulse. "There are several really interesting things about terahertz that set it apart from other technology," Clough says. "One of those is that it's a relatively unexplored region on the electromagnetic spectrum." COURTESY OF BENJAMIN CLOUGH/RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (R.P.I.)
- TERAHERTZ DETECTIVE: As part of his technique, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Benjamin Clough trains two laser beams into the air and creates small bursts of plasma, which in turn create terahertz pulses. A second pair of lasers aimed near the object being examined creates a second plasma filament for detecting the terahertz pulses after they have passed through the object. By training a sensitive microphone on the plasma, Clough found he could embed terahertz wave information—happening on the picosecond (trillionth of a second) time scale—into sound waves to capture digital data about the electromagnetic terahertz pulse. These data could then be instantly checked against a library of known terahertz fingerprints to determine the chemical composition of the material in question while maintaining a safe distance from a potential hazard. Since detection of terahertz is through acoustics, direct line of sight to the object being scanned is no longer needed, although lasers have to be located close by. COURTESY OF BENJAMIN CLOUGH/RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (R.P.I.)
- ALL WEATHER GEAR: Daigle is also developing caster skis that clip onto a manual wheelchair's wheels to help them move more easily through snow. Another idea is to create snap-on wheelchair snow chains for better traction in the winter months. COURTESY OF SCOTT DAIGLE/UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA--CHAMPAIGN
- INTELLIGENT WHEELS: The gearing system and wheels sense the user's movements and intelligently shift gears to adapt to any terrain. Each wheel weighs about 2.27 kilograms and can quick-release from a wheelchair for easy loading into a car. COURTESY OF SCOTT DAIGLE/UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA--CHAMPAIGN
- HUMANIZED MOUSE: Chen created humanized mice with tissue-engineered, humanlike livers that can metabolize compounds to human-specific products and predict toxic drug interactions, among other behaviors. In Chen's model, an artificial human liver is first engineered in vitro by combining human liver cells, supporting cells and a gel solution that solidifies when triggered by light. The resulting liver, patterned with light to resemble a soft contact lens, is then implanted into a mouse's abdomen. This graphic depicts the multistage development process of humanizing mice via tissue engineering. COURTESY OF ALICE CHEN/HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- ENTREPRENEUR: Harvard–M.I.T.'s Alice Chen is a co-applicant on five patents and co-author of 14 technical publications or book chapters. She was recognized for her work developing a new way to implant human cells in lab mice to better test the efficacy of new drug candidates. The result could shave time and money off of the process of developing new drugs, which can take a decade and cost tens of millions of dollars. COURTESY OF ALICE CHEN/HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- MINI MICROSCOPE: Zheng adapted super-resolution image-processing technology to create an on-chip microscope—a sub-pixel resolving optofluidic microscope (SROFM)—made up of a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor connected via a USB port to a computer loaded with image-enhancing software. COURTESY OF GUOAN ZHENG/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- MICROFLUIDICS: California Institute of Technology's Guoan Zheng has developed a device that uses microfluidics, micrometer-size molded tubing, and interconnects to deliver water or blood samples directly across a CMOS sensor, the same type of sensor found in some cameras and mobile phones. COURTESY OF GUOAN ZHENG/CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
