Innovation Reigns at the CWRU Research ShowCASE

A wellspring of cutting edge ideas in science, technology, education, and medicine will be on display at the seventh annual Research ShowCASE exhibition at the Veale Convocation Center this Thursday, April 16. The day-long exhibitition is no cost, open to the public, and presents a remarkable opportunity to find out about the future and breakthroughs in knowledge.

With over 500 posters submitted detailing their proposals, graduate students, Ph.D. researchers, and post-docs will explain their innovative research using expertise and multi-media presentations. Visitors are invited to walk up and down the aisles to examine firsthand these projects and collaborations from area researchers and academicians.

Of special interest to you anti-lawncare types: a new lawnmower in the design and test stages. This robotic assistant allows you to wonder... "What if I could just sit back, enjoy the spring weather with my friends and family, while an autonomous, wireless lawn mower drives around my lawn cutting the grass?" Pretty cool, huh?

Roger D. Quinn, director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Robotics Research at Case Western Reserve University, said the CWRU (crew) Cutter is better than the new wireless vacuum cleaner because the mower has a GPS camera, sensors, and a small computer allowing the battery-operated machine to be programmed with specific lawn cutting instructions. MTD, the global manufacturer of outdoor power equipment, is involved in sponsoring development of this exciting new product.

Quinn and his team have also designed biologically-inspired robots for use in the military, emergency situations, and space exploration. "Dagsi-Whegs," the name of a moving robot that can also climb stairs (see picture), will be on display to show how it can enter a building or a bus independently in search of explosives, he explained.

"Robots can help first responders (police and fire personnel) by taking the first look at a bomb threat. A robot like the micro MALV (Micro Air and Land Vehicle) - Flyer, with a 16-inch wingspan, can fly, land, and walk. It is equipped with chemical sensors and cameras that can verify and detect explosives," said Quinn.

In designing biologically inspired robotics, the Case engineering team studies animal behavior and creates algorithms to mimic that behavior. For example, a moth or butterfly does not fly directly in a straight line, but flies zig-zag in three dimensional space.

"It may be tracking an odor or food or a female," he explained. "The odor is part of the turbulent flow of air, with eddies and gusts of air. When designing a robotic flyer, we also have to take these conditions into account," Quinn added.

Andrew Gross, medical simulation manager for the Mt. Sinai Skills and Simulation Center (MSSSC), will demonstrate and explain the new medical education technology from the Simbionix LAP Mentor. MSSSC has a second generation LAP Mentor II allowing for individual or team training, and with improved haptic sensory feedback, so the students can actually "feel" what the surgery is like. They also have four smaller LAP Mentors providing individual students with opportunities to practice suturing, two-handed maneuvers, camera manipulation, and more advanced procedures with the educational modules.

"Anyone interested in performing minimally-invasive surgery will have to know about laparoscopic surgery. These new machines allow medical students to practice virtually using instruments, a computer monitor, and a screen, rather than practicing on live human beings," Gross explained. Students working on the LAP Mentors improve their eye-hand coordination using instruments and seeing results.

"Students can see their mistakes when a vessel is accidentally cut and blood splashes up on the computer monitor screen. The LAP Mentor also provides statistical feedback documenting the student work and how long the procedure took. Using these simulation machines, students increase their skills, speed, and efficiency while improving patient safety," he added.

At another exhibit, three Ph.D. students at the Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing at CWRU, Wananani Tshiamo, from Botswana, Srimana Niyomkar, from Thailand, and Lena Heyn, from Norway, have joined together to present a research proposal investigating the effect of electronic games on adolescents' pain relief in the post operative period.

"At the adolescent stage in this country," said Tshiamo, "under normal circumstances many kids play with the electronic media much of the time. We want to divide a group of post-surgical adolescents into a control group and experimental group to see which is more effective in minimizing pain, the group receiving pain-relief medication or the group distracted by mild-mannered computer games. We have submitted the abstract but we're still at the proposal stage. We want to see the line of thinking from the well-versed pediatric professionals here," he concluded.

We don't begin to have enough space to cover all the innovative research projects being investigated here at area medical and educational settings. Posters and active demonstrations will be available from 9am-3pm, graduate poster competition awards ceremony at 3PM and then Mary Woolley, president of Research!America, the nation’s largest not-for-profit alliance working to promote the benefits of research, will provide the keynote address from 4 - 5PM. For more information, please visit http://showcase.case.edu:80

From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul susn1ATatt.net
(:divend:)