A heart on a chip (HoC) is an embedded device that can be used for testing of pacemakers in real-time like a live heart. UoA has designed one of the first HoC and you may watch a video at: http://pretzel.ece.auckland.ac.nz/bio. A limitation of the current HoC is that it behaves like a healthy human heart. In order to be able to test pacemakers for potential problems, it would be necessary to customise the HoC so that it is patient specific. It would be also essential to perturb the HoC so that it exhibits different disease states in real-time. Finally, it would be necessary to compare the designed real-time HoC with high fidelity models.
Undergraduate
1) A patient specific HoC by customisation of the HoC based on ECG traces from patients.
2) Algorithm for perturbing the heart in real-time to increase coverage.
3) Closed-loop testing of pacemakers.
4) Students will be able to perform research related activities, which will be useful if you want to main for excellent grades and potential publications. Also, you will have excellent training in an exciting new application for biomedical engineering. Job prospects in F&P Healthcare and other medical device companies will be improved.
Most ECE students including Software Engineering students can participate in this project. Discuss with me and I can explain. A team comprising of a mix of degrees (EE, SE / CSE, EE, CSE, SE etc) are also feasible.
Lab allocations have not been finalised