Biomedical Article in The Hindu
Designs extremely practical and find use in day-to-day life of people
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and the biomedical engineering students of Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering for Women have shown how true the idiom is. The students as part of their final-year project have developed twelve prototypes that can aid in healthcare. The students have developed the concept from scratch with the help of the faculty and have created working models of their innovative ideas. All the designs are extremely practical and find use in day-to-day life of people not only undergoing medical treatment but in diagnosis and the lives of the disabled as well.
Biomedical engineering is a highly sought after stream abroad but is relatively new in India. There are only four colleges in the State that offer the course as it has not become that popular among students yet. The field is an integration of medicine and engineering as it aims at applying electronics and mechanics to medical science. There is an increasing demand for innovation and entrepreneurship in the field as well as a demand for engineers to maintain medical equipment.
The students developed simple but effective models that have impressed people in the medical field. A breath detection equipment to help track foetal heart rate or help asthmatic patients, a muscle stimulator to help with muscle rehabilitation, a muscle relaxant monitoring system to help anaesthesiologists, a stethoscope to detect only lung sounds, a digital temperature control for an incubator, and a stress indicator are some of the models on display.
To help disabled people, the students have developed an FM-based hearing aid, an ultrasonic cane to help the blind travel. To help in operations and places that are hard to reach the students have developed a capacitive proximity detector for grasping with robotic hand.
- Biomedical engineering can be of immense service to the disabled and to doctors
- The course is sure to gain popularity and will surely see some life changing innovations
