Foley Bag Support Box: Accurate Volumetric and Color-Based Measurements

I am proud to present my work for my senior capstone project as a University of Pittsburgh Bioengineer. I worked with a team composed of nurses, doctors, surgeons, other bioengineers, and mechanical engineers in order to design a novel medical product to meet an unmet clinical need. This endeavor took place over a two semester period. It was complete with a full ethnographic report, which included risk analysis, infringement checks, provisional patent assessments, verification and validation tests, clincial studies, animal studies, and an FDA pre-sub. Everyone contributed an immense amount of extremely valuable work and expertise. The community at PITT is unmatched in their desire to improve and innovate. I was specifically responsible for the construction of the electrical circuit, which included coding of an accurate weight and color system, complete with filing and tare systems for medical data analysis. Additionally, using a commercially-sourced raspberry-pi microcontroller and router, I was able to make our device assessable from any computer or phone operating on its closed network. Finally, I was able to use the filing system to create various alarm systems in order to alert physicians of changes in patients' Foley bags. My understanding of what it is to be an engineer was forever changed by this project. I am extremely grateful to my team and everyone who contributed. I am also proud to report this project won 1st place at the annual Fall PITT Design Expo.