RESEARCH OREGON 2006: OREGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
OIT students perform remarkable research
OREGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY OFFERS undergraduate research
opportunities unparalleled in the Pacific Northwest.
In the most recent academic year, several scholarly articles
and a patent application were the products of work done by six
seniors completing projects in the area of Biomedical Signal
Processing. Under the direction of Dr. Mateo Aboy, OIT’s
Electronics Engineering Technology program director in
Portland, the students worked on relevant and challenging
research problems.
This work was sponsored, in part, by the Center for Critical
Care Research at the Oregon Health and Science University, and
the Clinical Research Division of Micro Systems Engineering
(MSEI), a BIOTRONICK company. These scholars and their projects
included:
+ Daniel Austin
developed a new methodology to estimate the pulse pressure
variation index. It is an important problem, because numerous
studies have demonstrated that PPV is one of the most sensitive
and specific predictors of fluid responsiveness. Specifically,
PPV has been shown to be useful as a dynamic indicator to guide
fluid therapy in different patient populations receiving
mechanical ventilation.
+ Christian Staats
developed a new statistical mathematical model for physiologic
pressure and noise. The model may be used to test algorithms
designed to estimate and track the cardiac frequency,
respiratory frequency and pulse variation in cardiovascular
signals.
+ Son La developed and
assessed a new proprietary methodology to estimate surface
electrocardiogram signals from intracardiac electrogram signals
for Micro Systems Engineering. This is a problem of clinical
and commercial significance. His proprietary technique
currently is being tested for the next generation BIOTRONIK
pacemakers.
+ Walter Barrer, Robert King and Edward Soderberg worked as a team
to develop a new automatic detection algorithm for
cardiovascular pressure signals such as arterial blood
pressure, intracranial pressure and pulse oximetry. These are
necessary for automatic analysis of cardiovascular signals and
have numerous practical applications.
According to Dr. Aboy, “Medical doctors and health
scientists involved in research are in important need of
engineers who are willing to work on their research problems.
However, despite the important contributions that engineers can
make, most engineering graduates don’t feel capable of
working on health-related problems.
“At OIT, we can educate our engineering graduates to be
different. Increasing collaboration in projects between
students in our health science and engineering programs is
important. These 2005-06 graduate-level research projects
demonstrate the excellent preparation our students have to make
significant research contributions in health
sciences.”
Dr. Aboy says that OIT is uniquely able to provide such
opportunities for undergraduate students, because the
university is dedicated to undergraduate education.
Industry-proven faculty lead classroom and laboratory
experiences, instead of the graduate teaching fellows found at
other universities.
The OIT students’ research papers were published for the
European International Conference in Biomedical Engineering
(EURASIP-BIOSIGNAL 2006) and the International Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers Conference in Engineering
in Medicine and Biology (IEEE-EMBS 2006).
Articles were also submitted to IEEE Transactions in Biomedical
Engineering (IEEE-TBME) — the top-ranked
international research journal in general biomedical
engineering — and Medical & Biological Engineering
& Computing, another leading journal in biomedical
research.
“This was a remarkable accomplishment on the part of the
students,” says Dr. Aboy, “especially considering
that this was the first time they had taken a course in
biomedical engineering, statistical signal processing, and
biosignal analysis. They didn’t have any prior research
experience.”
Oregon Institute of Technology has a regional reputation for
the strength of its programs in health sciences and
engineering. Collaboration between the health sciences and
engineering programs is vital, as advances in health care
require engineering involvement. According to Dr. Aboy,
“medical teams are no longer composed of medical doctors
and health scientists, but need collaborators from electrical,
electronics, manufacturing and software engineering.”
OIT is a member of the Oregon University System and offers
bachelor’s degree programs in engineering, engineering
technologies, health sciences, allied health, communications
and management.
For more information about
OIT, visit the university’s Web site at www.oit.edu, or call 800.422.2017.
