iLAB: Next-generation coding for physiological monitoring

Summary

Our iLAB (interactive Learning Across Boundaries) project has three aims. The first is to give school students – the next generation of researchers – access to stimulating education about applications of programming to medical technology. This links to the second aim, which is to hold a competition in which five teams of students work over a series of tutorials delivered in school to build a low-cost Arduino based device to monitor a body function, such as heart rate. Each team will also design a website with full details of their device, thereby enabling other students to reproduce their ideas at the end of the project. Finally, the tutorials will facilitate exchange of knowledge and experience amongst our iLAB team of researchers, so that we each develop a deeper understanding of medical technologies, how to exploit these to probe different body functions, and also how to teach basic programming to 14-15-year-old students.

The Team

Joanna Brunker CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge; jb2014@cam.ac.uk

Jo is a postdoctoral research fellow with a PhD in designing devices to measure blood flow, so will contribute her knowledge of device design and biological monitoring.

Catherine Fitzpatrick Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge; crmf2@cam.ac.uk

Cat is a postdoctoral research associate currently working with Raspberry Pi programming for medical optics, and with previous experience in medical technology consulting. She will therefore contribute her skills in programming, device development, and assessment of medical market needs.

Marcel Gehrung CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge; mg858@cam.ac.uk

Marcel is a German Masters student studying for six months in Cambridge. He has a background in programming, machine learning, and cell biology, so will help with programming and analysing the biological data.

James Joseph Department of Physics, University of Cambridge; jj412@cam.ac.uk
James built optical imaging systems during his PhD, and is characterising imaging system stability for his postdoctoral research. He will therefore contribute to the design and engineering of the monitoring systems and reliability testing.

Calum Williams Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge; cw507@cam.ac.uk Calum’s post-doc follows his PhD in optical engineering, in which he fabricated and characterised various optical devices. He will contribute to programming and optical sensing.