In This Story
Two multidisciplinary senior design teams in George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing are taking on major health‑related challenges—one developing a next‑generation glucose detection device, the other creating a unified tool for early detection of sarcopenia. Together, their work showcases how engineering students are applying research, innovation, and collaboration to improve health outcomes.
Pranav Choori’s family picked up and moved from the U.S. to India—where his parents were born—when he was young, in part so his mom could launch a solar and robotics manufacturing company there. You could say that Choori comes by his technical, entrepreneurial mindset honestly. He’s now part of a team creating a glucose detection device for their senior design project with collaboration of electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering and bioengineering.
“Once we decide the geometry and the material of nanostructures, we'll run simulations, and then we'll fabricate that structure at the GMU Nanofabrication Facility (NFF), integrate micro scale fluidic channel, and then test it,” he said. “There's two different ways of fabricating those devices. Depending on which way we make it, we’ll have to adjust micro fluidics fabrication.”
The device will involve a micro scale fluid channel system that integrates the sensor chip, which adds a physical layer controlling how a liquid sample moves. When a liquid sample is added, those channels guide the fluid to the appropriate spots on the sensor. The sample ends up exactly where it needs to be, which makes the optical sensing measurements more accurate and reliable.
Choori said that he appreciates that it’s a very research-focused project. He said, “We’re collaborating with mechanical engineering students, and they’ll do the micro fluidics design.” Choori said the project stems from the research of co-advisors Sezin Sayin, NFF leader, Pouya Rezai, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Remi Veneziano, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering.
Sayin said, “NFF operates under the Institute for Biohealth Innovation (IBI), which supports the project. The NFF is a core facility in the Innovation District anchored by George Mason's SciTech campus, which brings together research, industry, education, and government to move ideas from concept to market and create high‑value jobs.”
In addition to Choori, other students on the project are: James Edward Daniel, Ashaki SetepenRa-Deloatch, Ilyas Valiyev, Victor Slava Adams, Manlankou Kouacou, Steven Sanchez Villeda, Yahir Torrez, Mohammed Ahmed, and Muhammad Wasimur Rahman.
A “One‑Stop Shop” for Detecting Muscle Loss
Justin Caldwell, a Bachelor's to Accelerated Master's student in Computer Engineering, is on his own senior design project team. They call the device they are working on, “One-stop shop sarcopenia,” and it will provide early detection of sarcopenia, an age-related, involuntary loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function, typically beginning around age 40.
“In the current market, there are methods to do this detection, but none in a cohesive way,” he said. “You have to use multiple different devices, multiple different tools, and algorithms. Our product simplifies that process, having those features in one device and so that way you can do point A to point B with little-to-some guidance.”
He said the project’s goals were very inspiring, and while he and teammates were somewhat apprehensive at first because it involves elements from medicine, they chose it of its potential to help many people in a new way. He also said it stretches their skill sets.
“In the end it’s electrical signals that we have to measure and that is the simple part. The hard part is the translation—understanding what we are trying to find and how we measure that most accurately.” One tool they’re using is biological impedance analysis, which measures how well a body “resists” a current; high resistance suggests strong muscles. “We have to determine how can we make sure we're getting the right data, is it true or false, and if it's wrong, then what can be fixed?”
Caldwell knows the project is the first step in a long process, and he anticipates future teams can carry it forward. “Our responsibility is to make sure we build a very solid product so that if any changes or improvements need to be made, someone can easily can pick it up where we left off and continue to develop it.”
In addition to technical skill development, senior design projects teach other important assets. Caldwell said his valuable takeaways are time management, team management, and learning to be an overall team leader on a complex project.
Other team members include: Wendy Huang, Anishk Maddikunta, Kwaku Mensah, Aparna Adharapurapu, and Edmond Tran. The supervisor is Ethan Ahn, associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Stefanos Tyrovolas, associate professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, provided other support.