Engineering

The phenomenon of reproduction is fundamentally important to any growing society; yet, many of the details surrounding the “mystery of life” still elude even the scientific and engineering communities. This reality is all too painful for the nearly 10% of married, child-bearing age American and French couples who experience problems with fertility and turn to assisted reproductive technologies, despite the fact that they boast high costs (> $12,000 USD) and low success rates (< 50%).

Analysis of walking abnormalities is an important clinical assessment used for treatment of gait disorders in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Camerabased motion capture, the current gold standard, enables practitioners to perform gait analyses with high accuracy. However, the technology can only be used in the laboratory where motion capture is constrained to a limited space and incurs significant expense. Mobile systems are now possible using light-weight wearable sensors known as inertial measurement units (IMU).

Deep-water wrecks are remarkably well preserved, protected from negative environmental factors (storms, strong currents, high temperatures), naval shipworm, rapid oxidation and, of course, all but the most determined of looters. Over the last couple of decades industrial fishing has started threatening this valuable cultural heritage, even in depths of more than 1000 meters. Scarce fish reserves are forcing trawlers to work in deeper water and, when a trawl line comes up against a wreck, the result is the destruction of an entire archaeological site.

This summer, I will be working with Dr. Florent Kirchner’s lab at CEA in Saclay, France. His lab is developing techniques and tools to formally verify the safety and security of critical software. In particular, the focus this summer will be on EMY (Enhancing MobilitY), a wearable full-body exoskeleton that will allow paraplegic and quadriplegic people to regain complete mobility. In such systems, even minor software bugs are unacceptable.

Music composers’ work with computers is generally divided in the two distinct stages of composition and performance. Each stage requires specific methodology and software: computer-aided composition involves time and high computation capabilities to produce complex musical scores, while performance and live rendering require reactive environments with precise real-time constraints.

Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer, with more than 3.5 million new cases diagnosed annually in the United States alone. The gold standard method for skin cancer diagnosis is biopsy, which consists in the excision, extraction, and processing of skin samples before their final evaluation by a specialist through an optical microscope. However, conventional biopsy entails two severe drawbacks, namely its invasive nature and its timeconsuming nature.

I conducted research on plasma as an intern at École Centrale Paris (in Paris). I worked with the E2MC Lab (Energétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion), headed by Professor Christophe Laux, on the use of plasma to accelerate the process of combustion.

Current diagnosis of skin cancer mainly relies on biopsy (i.e., removing a portion of tissue); nearly 12 million biopsies are performed each year. In 60% of the cases, however, the skin anomalies are benign and do not necessitate further treatment. Furthermore, over one third of skin pathologies are actually missed because the dermatologist can only detect changes to the surface of the skin, not underneath. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a promising alternative to conventional biopsy because of its potential to produce comparable images without piercing the skin.