Each year the Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts (BEST) program welcomes a new cohort of students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Over the course of their undergraduate career, the BEST program provides a comprehensive, thriving environment for the students to support their personal and academic growth. BEST operates through the Center for STEM Diversity (CSD) at Tufts in conjunction with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the School of Engineering, and is led by CSD Associate Director Sehba Hasan.
This series highlights the work that BEST students are doing at Tufts.
Macy Halim
As part of her research within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Macy Halim, E26, worked
together with Riley Patten, T.J. Hinton, and David Kaplan on bioprinting high-resolution, small-scale
brain structures for advanced exploration. To be able to do this they used the Freeform Reversible
Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. The FRESH technique is a bioprinting
method that helps with creating soft, complex tissue structures. Throughout Macy’s research, she
bioprinted an ear and modeled and 3D printed a brain. This research goes to show how the FRESH
technique would be beneficial if implemented more into healthcare, as it allows for the reduction of
organ donors and allows surgeons to practice more complex surgeries, amongst all other things this
innovative technique brings to us. The goal of this research is to help healthcare progress into
something that is ‘more efficient, accessible, and tailored to patient needs.
Victor Vazquez
As part of his research on chinampas, Victor Vazquez traveled to Xochimilco in Mexico City to get a first-
hand account of them. Chinampas are artificial islands that are made by putting organic matter together
within an underwater fence made out of tree logs. He was able to meet with organizations like the
Olintalli and ChinampasXochimilco to understand more about the current state of the chinampas. The
chinampas were facing pollution from tourists and decreasing water levels. However, even with the
chinampas going through these things right now, Victor has witnessed organizations who care about the
chinampas who will strive to make them thrive again.
Jeremiah Longino
For a science fair research project, Jeremiah Longino, E27, delved into Predictive Health Genomics in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In his study, he used the summary statistics from the TWAS IBD to make his conclusions of which genes were significantly associated to IBD. He was able to identify 16 genes associated to IBD, which supports his initial interest in how predictive health genomics research can detect genes for certain diseases and how that can lead people to get treatment. Deriving from his own personal experience, Jeremiah developed an interest in Predictive Health Genomics in IBD, and hopes to use these tools to predict the possibility of either developing certain diseases or passing them on.
Paul Galvan
In April of 2023, BEST participant Paul Galvan, E26, worked with Research Associate Professor Ethan Danahy to build Easter-related projects for LEGO Education. Working together, Galvan and Danahy designed an effective egg-drop for an audience of roughly 100 children. A few weeks later, LEGO Education asked for 17 more replicas of the project, which they would send to the White House by the end of that week for the annual White House Easter EGGucation Roll. Galvan had three days to design the project, replicate it, and send it out to an army base for the project to get screened. In this process, Galvan and team added a safety mechanism and produced several backups of each component in case of breakages.
Galvan and Danahy traveled to Washington D.C. to facilitate activities using their robots at the event. On the day of the egg roll, the team set up their robots early in the morning and spent the rest of the day interacting with the children and families who attended the event. It was a surreal experience for Galvan, who reports feeling proud of the quality of his work. Galvan recalls one of his favorite memories from the experience was, "seeing my design work all day with minor problems, which we were then able to use and serve to 35,000 people, including 15,000 happy kids," he said.
Dennis Bazan and Alyssa Dhalla
For their Structural Analysis Class (CEE22), Dennis Bazan and Alyssa Dhalla (class of 2024) were given the task to design a 20” long bridge that would withstand a load of 200 lbs. downwards and a load of 20 lbs. laterally. Given limited materials of basswood, they decided to create a truss bridge with a height of 7” and width of 2.5.” They ran preliminary designs of truss bridges on the software SAP2000 to estimate the performance of how much compressive and tensile stresses each member will hold. By evaluating the tradeoff between strength, efficiency, and aesthetics, the bridge's final design was minimalist in style but complex in member and joint design. Various calculations were performed on the final design to verify the expected outcome. These include calculating the area of joint overlap, global and local buckling, and the number of needed materials for construction. In the end, their bridge withstood a load of approximately 207 lbs., and the mode of failure was due to shear and side member breakage.
Ricardo (Cardi) Garcia Mendez
Photo of Ricardo Garcia Mendez (Cardi)
As part of a final project for a biomechanics class, BEST participant Ricardo (Cardi) Garcia Mendez, E25, recently built a prosthetic leg. Working with fellow first year engineering students Tyler Mackowski, E25, Roberto Garcia, E25, and Jon Aretxabaleta, E25, the team built the prosthetic leg and tested out the gait of a potential user in the lab. Their leg was based on the iwalk 2.0, a prosthetic leg made to help people who have injuries walk. The group modeled their work on the computer before building the product and completing lab testing to see how well their prosthetic leg helped with walking and preventing further injury. You can see in the motion capture in a lab video, Cardi testing out the prototype.
How is your model different than what is out there?
Usually, treatments that deal with leg injury involve crutches and not being able to use your hands or have much mobility, but the iwalk gives users support while having their hands free and therefore they have more mobility.
What was the purpose of this project?
The project was made with the purpose for us to recreate an already existing product called the iwalk and make any improvements we saw fit.
The result looks useful – did users think so?
It worked! Not only did we make a good replica, we also improved on some of the aspects of the design we thought could make it better. We added a support handle to grab on to while walking if needed and our “foot” felt more comfortable because we used a lacrosse ball to provide more cushioning while stepping.
Biggest challenge? What would you do differently if you could do it over?
There was a constraint of only being able to use PVC pipes and having to put together a prosthetic leg with only those materials was very challenging. PVC pipes are round and this made it difficult to connect pieces that were at angles and it made it a challenge to create a final product that could support human weight.