Medical Device Development and Prototyping
The global medical devices market size was valued at USD $542.21 billion in 2024, with a projected growth above $800 billion by 2032. This market includes wired and wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices, devices worn on clothing and devices implanted to continuously monitor critical patient health, devices used in the hospital and devices used at home; all of which have a stringent design, prototype, validation, and experimental process before ever reaching consumers. In the Electromagnetics lab, researchers apply electromagnetic principles to the design and development of wearable, on-body RFIDs for patient health monitoring, hospital and public safety applications, and radio frequency (RF) shielding. To support this research, we create our own tissue mimicking gel phantoms and electrically characterize the commercially available materials used in the creation of our designs. Students engaged in this work through the VIP program will be trained in the fundamentals of electromagnetic theory as well as relevant software and hardware that will be used in the execution of their research and development projects.
The team is looking for energetic and motivated sophomore, junior, and senior undergraduate and graduate students in ECE, CS, BME and CLSE with a strong desire to participate in the design, building and testing of medical devices and systems.
Current projects include:
- Developing textile-based RF designs for health monitoring and public safety applications.
- Design and development of 3-D printed antennas and antenna systems to be used in collateral therapy protocols for chemotherapy treatments. The designs will be individualized to the patient’s unique shape and needs.
- Development of bio-mimicking gels to be used in in-vitro testing of the developed therapeutic and diagnostic protocols.
- Developing AI/LLM tools for electromagnetics applications and research.
Interested? Contact Prof. Erdem Topsakal (etopsakal@vcu.edu)