Biomedical Engineering Team

Our biomedical engineering team develops software and hardware instrumentation for neurobehavioral research experiments. Responsibilities include: algorithm and interface programming, material and equipment procurement research, and construction of custom experiment apparatuses and environments. Our professional staff oversees the projects and Master's theses of students from NJIT. Safety is critical. The custom environments, apparatus and procedures are thoroughly tested for ensuring the safety of research subjects and operators while not unduly affecting the local environment. Some of our latest engineering projects containing a high degree of automation are listed and described here:

I. Scientific Treatment of Paintball Gaming

The goal is to assess human stress and behavioral responses in both escape/avoidance and approach/avoidance conditions. Paintball gaming provided a unique opportunity to study decision making in subjects willingly exposed to tolerable, but aversive stimuli. Our engineering team developed a system capable of tracking motivated individuals' movements as they navigate an arena while being bombarded by multiple computer-automated firing arrays of markers deploying paintballs from the far end of the arena. This system spans the largest square footage covered by an infrared camera tracking system in the United States.

II. Firing Accuracy and Interference

The military and law enforcement typically deploy distracters to reduce the targeting and firing accuracy of opponents. There is a dearth of empirical data on which to compare the effectiveness of devices and strategies. An arcade game provided standardized firing and accuracy tasks. Engineering accomplishments include: setting up light and sound distracters as well as customization and manipulation of an existing arcade game to allow for computerized control and automation. Our computer override reduced the procedural tasks required of operators and subjects.

While the arcade game presented numerous advantages -- various game scenarios and scoring -- the game itself emitted light of various intensities. The light emitted limited our ability to manipulate and control light. Therefore, the engineering team developed a custom environment to quantify interference effects in targeting and firing accuracy produced by the presence of brief, bright light and/or loud sounds. The environment provides the opportunity to manipulate the timing and positioning of a brief flash of light and/or sound while individuals participated in a targeting task. The environment consists of a cylindrical room, 16-feet in diameter, with sound and light interference sources every 10 degrees and 400 targets within 360 degrees along its wall. The engineering team fabricated a computer-automated system, achieved by development of a hardware and software system, which presented the subject with a sound or light target, preceded by a sound or light interference. The developed system enables the tracking of virtual shots from a fired simulation gun in 360 degrees of direction within a cylindrical environment.

III. Synthetic Fog

Synthetic fogs have the potential to provide obscuration with little safety risk from inhalation. Obscuration can be used as a tactical advantage to reduce visibility of adversaries or to cover the movements of friendly forces. Assessments of the effectiveness of synthetic fogs require measurement of the physical transmission of light and sound, perception of the light and sound within the fog environment and the degree that synthetic fogs inhibit movement and degrade performance. To enable such experimentation, computer control of the fog machine was desired; fog flow, density and elimination are now automated. Apparatus were developed to enable psychophysical measurement of sensory capabilities in synthetic fog. The assessment of synthetic fog also required the ability to track subject's performance in fog.

Our engineers are:

Michael T. Bergen

Michael Bergen is a biomedical engineer and chief of the laboratories Technology Group. He graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1990 and an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2000 from the Newark College of Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. For his graduate degree, he designed, developed, and implemented a software system for the automated control and online evaluation of a classical conditioning eyeblink response experiment for use with human subjects. Besides working for the SMBI, Michael enjoys teaching biomedical engineering courses as an adjunct professor at NJIT in the Biomedical Engineering department. He began working for the New Jersey VA Health Care System in 1987.

Florence B. Chua

Florence B. Chua is a biomedical engineer. She graduated with a B.S. in Engineering Science in 2000 and an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2003 from the Newark College of Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. During her undergraduate curriculum, she assisted in studying the effects of spinal cord injury on the proliferation, motility, and morphology of sperm. As part of her graduate degree, she upgraded a haploscope system which presented stimuli on an oscilloscope to display instead on a computer monitor. This allowed for a wider range of stimulus types. She has completed work for the SMBI as a graduate student from 2001 through 2004, and as a contracted employee from 2004 to 2005, and as a full-time employee since then. She has participated in the Annual NorthEast Bioengineering Conference since 2003. Her professional interests include: practical applications of mathematics, algorithm development, and design.

Robert M. DeMarco

Robert M. DeMarco is a biomedical engineer. He earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering in 2001 and an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2003 from the Newark College of Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. During his undergraduate degree, he helped develop Visual C++ code for a haptic device for the possibility of self-mobilizing a paraplegic through the use of his fingers. For his graduate degree, he developed an interface for tracking hand position and hand formation to analyze the biomechanics of American Sign Language (ASL). He began working for the New Jersey VA Health Care System in 2001 part time, and became a full time engineer in 2003. His professional interests include: digital design, automating systems, algorithm development, construction, and wireless communication.

Michael Ocasio

Michael Ocasio is a medical equipment engineer. He trained at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois for the United States Navy. From 1988 through 1992, he served in the Navy aboard the USS Kitty Hawk as an aviation technician. Since 2002 Michael has been a member of the Air National Guard 177th Fighter Wing. He attended the College of Aeronautics in Flushing, New York, then enrolled at Hudson County Community College where he attained an A.A.S. in Electronics Engineering. Michael currently attends the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he plans to earn a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and pursue an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Since 1999, he has been working for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and enjoys serving veterans in need.

Gladstone V. Reid

Gladstone V. Reid is a biomedical engineer. He completed his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in May 2003 and his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering in August 2005, through the Newark College of Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. During his undergraduate study he recreated a blood oxygen saturation control system that replaced the mechanical ventilator with control systems software. During his graduate study he designed, created, and tested an automated, virtual fMRI facility to habituate subjects participating in a pain perception study at the New Jersey VA Health Care System. He recently joined the engineering team in 2005, with hopes of continuing to make improvement in the research of illnesses suffered by veterans.

Priyanka P. Shah

Priyanka P. Shah is a biomedical engineer. In 2005, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering concentrating on bioinstrumentation from the Newark College of Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). For her senior project, she and her group developed an Ambulatory Pre-seizure Detection Device that alerts a patient of an oncoming seizure after observing a preseizure parameter. Priyanka joined the engineering team in April 2006 after working for 10 months as an intern. She is currently developing a device for ambulatory monitoring of physiology and behavior for a stress response measurement. She will begin her graduate career at NJIT in Fall 2006.