A Senior Design Project in Fabrication of Microfluidic HIV/Zika Viral Load and Monitoring Test Chips through Manufacturing Processes

Current Techniques of diagnostics use expensive laboratory equipment. These costs are levied upon the patient. Medical costs have increased to astronomical numbers and have crippled the accessibility to healthcare technology. Simplified miniaturized laboratory processes are considered ‘lab on a chip’ medical diagnostics devices. In recent years, microfluidic projects have proved highly effective in introducing traditional engineering students (electrical, mechanical, and industrial) to clinical diagnostics and the emerging field of point-ofcare (POC) tests. This senior design project consisted of students within biomedical, electrical, and mechanical engineering. As these projects can be ambitious and students may not have familiarity with certain aspects of this technology, good management is needed to streamline activities and keep the effort focused and on schedule. The project is leveraged towards engineering student skills in CAD, prototyping, image processing, instrumentation, and control. Students had to utilize manufacturing methods and techniques to create a medical device after investigating the market. This was a capstone project that was evaluated for three consecutive terms. The students had no prior experience within diagnostics but learned a great deal of information from extensive investigation. The goal was to produce a working prototype upon completion of the final term with results on methods of manufacturing the device. They were in direct contact with industry manufactures to determine marketability. This project received first place within the university’s engineering competition.