Aaryan Chaudhary '24
My Life as a Biomedical Engineering Major
My group’s senior design project is a steering wheel cover with the ability to detect stroke. We’re starting off with utilizing EKG and PPG sensors to detect atrial fibrillation and oxygen saturation that are closely correlated with stroke.
My honors thesis is with the Human Robot Systems Lab headed by Dr Meghan Huber of the mechanical engineering department in collaboration with the UMass Integrative Locomotion Lab. My thesis is titled Neural investigation of exoskeleton assisted walking. We basically have subjects walk with a hip exoskeleton on a treadmill while recording the changes in their brain activation and metabolic costs. This lab is actually conducting the first long term study of exoskeleton assisted walking with these measurement techniques, so it’s really groundbreaking stuff!
Alongside my classes, I am apart of a club known as MedTech. In 2022, I founded the MedTech team with a friend as an organization to give undergraduate engineers the opportunity to learn the engineering process. Each year, we design a novel medical device, prototype, and present it.
The team is split up into sub-teams (electrical and mechanical oriented) and together we end up making a cool prototype. Through our work, we’ve been able to win entrepreneurship competitions, enter engineering society competitions around the US, interview healthcare professionals, and even present our device to the CEO of a medical device company. The best part is when students are able to come back to the team and say that the work they did helped them land an internship or job in the future.
The MedTech Team is developing a cost-effective osteoarthritis boot for home therapy, integrating traction therapy to ease osteoarthritis symptoms. This interdisciplinary project blends biomechanics, human factors, and electrical and mechanical engineering. Engaging 25 undergraduates, the project offers comprehensive engineering process education and insight into medical device development.
Alongside my academics and academic clubs, I am a part of a dance team known as Mass Mirchi. A few friends and I decided to go all out and full send the idea of making a competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team. We knew nothing about dance, but together we were able to bring the team to perform on a national stage in Pittsburgh earlier this semester. It’s been truly one of my best experiences at UMass!
(Story by Ruchi Patel)