2025 Biomedical Engineering Capstone Designs

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is an early indicator of dementia, yet traditional diagnostic methods are often inaccurate, expensive, and require clinical administration. Cognify was developed as an accessible, at-home cognitive monitoring tool for individuals under 65, integrating language, memory, and eye-tracking assessments through interactive digital tasks. By analyzing trends over time, Cognify provides users and healthcare providers with objective insights, enabling early health intervention. This approach bridges the gap between clinical assessments and everyday cognitive health monitoring, making early detection more practical, personalized, and proactive.

This Capstone project aims to create a personal healthcare management system where users can securely upload, store, and manage their health information in the standardized FHIR format. Using RAG and LLMs would provide a user-friendly data query tool that summarizes and delivers valuable insights on medical terminology and longitudinal trends. This solution promotes patient autonomy and is particularly useful for those with limited access to general practitioners and other more sophisticated healthcare systems.

Concussion underreporting remains a critical issue in hockey due to the absence of a fast, accurate evaluation method. NeuroShield is an innovative sideline device designed specifically for young adult hockey players that harnesses eye-tracking technology to quickly and reliably assess head impact symptoms after they occur. By employing infrared cameras, an LCD screen, and a dedicated phone app, NeuroShield conducts precise smooth pursuit and fixation tests on the fly. This enables sideline staff to be promptly alerted to head impact symptoms, effectively curbing underreporting.

Akneeable team is designing a rehab device for Total Knee Arthroplasty Patients. It mechanically assists them to improve in a Range Of Motion exercise on day one after surgery. This will improve clinical outcome and reduce postoperative pain, as is motivated by early and high-intensity rehab studies.

Post-stroke patients face elevated risks from unpredictable blood pressure fluctuations, which can lead to recurrent strokes. We are developing a comfortable, continuous, cuffless blood pressure monitor that uses an optical sensor to estimate blood pressure in real time. Our AI-driven solution empowers patients to understand and manage their blood pressure while providing clinicians with personalized, actionable data to reduce the risk of subsequent strokes.

Sound2Sleep addresses sleep disruption in children with epilepsy through an innovative closed-loop auditory stimulation device. With real-time detection of slow-wave brain oscillations, the technology delivers precise, phase-targeted bursts of pink noise to optimize the restorative properties of sleep. As a result, this intervention improves sleep quality and cognitive functioning in children with epilepsy. The take-home device offers families an accessible and non-invasive approach to managing sleep challenges, supporting children's daily performance and cognitive development.

Concussions are a growing concern in sports, and timely, accurate detection is crucial to ensure player safety. EyeDentify introduces a portable concussion assessment tool designed to provide fast, objective evaluations right on the sidelines without the need for medical personnel. Using a VR headset paired with a smartphone, the tool guides athletes through simple eye movement tests to identify potential signs of concussion quickly. By delivering immediate, reliable feedback, EyeDentify enhances player safety and prevents premature return-to-play

Misplaced ECG leads affect up to 64% of cases, leading to false diagnoses in 24% of patients. Our project aims to develop an AR-based training device that ensures accurate ECG electrode placement by referencing bony landmarks across diverse patient physiques. Using Unity and iOS, our mobile solution provides real-time feedback to trainees, enhancing learning efficiency and reducing variability in placement. By replacing traditional training with an interactive, standardized approach, we are addressing a critical gap in ECG education for healthcare professionals.

Magnetic microrobots are soft micro-scale robots capable of travelling through tight junctions and vessels within the human body to deliver drugs at any location, using magnetic actuation for movement. One promising area of focus is kidney stone removal. While current treatments are invasive, prone to recurrence, and can result in harmful side effects, drug-loaded microrobots can dissolve kidney stones with minimal invasiveness. RENAL leverages computer vision, pathfinding, and 3D modelling to assist urologists with navigating microrobots within the renal system.

Ankle injuries caused by overuse, including Achilles tendinopathy, are the most common injuries seen in professional ballet dancers, and are challenging to heal and characterize properly. Brava aims to help dancers and their physiotherapists make data-driven decisions about their ankle injuries. Utilising markerless motion capture via computer vision, this tool classifies and counts a dancer’s movements, enabling them to set individualized training thresholds and receive feedback as they approach these limits. Brava supports dancers by focusing on their artform instead of their injuries.

SmartSplint focuses on developing customized, 3D-printed finger splints for individuals with deviation at the distal interphalangeal joint due to osteoarthritis. Our objectives include joint stabilization, pain reduction in everyday tasks, and maintenance of functional mobility. Users capture finger measurements via a smartphone-based scanning app for a personalized fit. A parameterized 3D model enables rapid customization, providing an end-to-end solution that supports users throughout disease progression. Our team strives to provide a comfortable, lightweight splint that empowers users to engage in their daily routines.

Professional mouth painters push the limits of creativity, but their craft comes with intense physical challenges. Relying entirely on their neck and jaw for precision, they endure neck pain and fatigue, often exacerbated by traditional easels that fail to accommodate their needs. Our ergonomically designed easel changes that. With automated height, translation, and tilt adjustments, the voice-controlled easel minimizes discomfort while maximizing control. Seamlessly adapting to each artist empowers them to create without limitations—because nothing should stand between an artist and their vision.

Lung diseases are the second leading cause of hospitalization in Canada. A chest x-ray is currently the standard method of diagnosis for such conditions, but it is expensive, not portable, and exposes patients to harmful ionizing radiation. Despite being cheaper, highly portable, and transmitting zero radiation, ultrasound is underutilized mainly due to a lack of trained personnel. PneumoGuide provides an augmented reality solution to guide inexperienced ultrasound users towards correct probe placement for lung exams. 

Current treatments for uveitis, like eye drops and injections, are ineffective and invasive, making disease management challenging, leading to poor adherence and inadequate control. The drug-eluting contact lens provides a non-invasive, sustained-release solution that delivers the medication directly to the eye over time. Our project ensures consistent drug levels, reducing the need for frequent dosing and improving patient compliance. By enhancing treatment effectiveness and convenience, our contact lens aims to prevent vision loss, reduce inflammation, and improve the quality of life for uveitis patients.

Our design aids patients recovering from Achilles tendon ruptures by facilitating plantarflexion and dorsiflexion rehabilitation exercises at home. It offers adjustable resistance to support progressive rehabilitation, collects and displays user-progression data on an accompanying mobile app, and is size-adjustable. This device aims to enhance patient adherence to therapy, track user recovery and improve communication between patients and therapists, supporting effective rehabilitation without compromising accessibility. This project addresses the need for a supportive, adjustable, and data-driven rehabilitation journey.

Peripheral intravenous (PIV) insertions are hospitals' most frequent invasive operation. However, PIV dislodgement is widespread, with failure rates of 35 - 50% and upwards of approximately 70%. PIVital aims to reduce PIV dislodgement rates in the forearm location and protect the PIV site. At the same time, it ensures that patients remain comfortable and that nurses can access and view the PIV site as needed. PIVital consists of a patch placed over the PIV site and a dome secured overtop to achieve this.

Our project is a wearable sensor system for individuals with relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis to detect and alert for oncoming fatigue. Using motion data, temperature, pulse oximetry, and other biomedical measurements, an individual's fatigue on the VAS scale can be calculated in real time. With a machine learning model and phone application, the user will be updated with their predicted fatigue ratings a few hours in advance to help them track their bouts of fatigue and plan their day more effectively. 

Respiratory clinicians often face challenges when adjusting treatment plans for pediatric asthma patients due to several factors. Children may be uncooperative, and current methods for evaluating conditions are largely subjective. Smart Spacer seeks to address these challenges by engaging children in their own care and equipping clinicians with quantitative metrics on medication usage and breathing. With integrated sensors and an engaging, interactive platform, Smart Spacer combines real-time monitoring and data-driven insights to effectively support children, parents, and clinicians in managing pediatric asthma.

HemoTrek presents a compact, efficient, and user-friendly blood viscometer designed to diagnose Hyperviscosity Syndrome (HVS) in clinical settings. HVS is a serious medical condition characterized by abnormally viscous blood, which can lead to severe complications such as organ dysfunction and neurological impairments. Early detection and continuous monitoring are crucial for effective treatment; however, current viscometry tools are time-consuming and dependent on centralized laboratory testing, causing delays in patient care. HemoTrek provides clinicians with a point-of-care solution that delivers real-time viscosity measurements to enable timely interventions.

WheelSafe is a system designed to mitigate backward tipping in manual wheelchairs, lowering the risk of serious injuries such as head trauma and spinal cord damage. It uses Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors to detect backward falls in real time and subsequently triggers a solenoid-based mechanism to stabilize the wheelchair. This design ensures quick response time, energy efficiency, and minimal interference with regular wheelchair maneuvers. WheelSafe enables users to navigate curbs and uneven terrain while maintaining their independence by striking a balance between safety, mobility and independence.

We are developing a comfortable, wearable headpiece for nightly use that utilizes real-time EEG monitoring and IMU positioning data. This innovative device detects high-risk seizure positions associated with SUDEP and wakes the user only when necessary, providing greater peace of mind and reducing anxiety. EEG recordings are stored in a mobile app, allowing users to securely share data with medical professionals for enhanced care and monitoring.

Peritonitis is a common and painful infection for peritoneal dialysis patients. The present standard for early detection of peritonitis relies on visual detection of cloudy waste fluid, which can cause a delayed response to life-saving treatment. We have engineered a spectrometry-based approach to detect elevated levels of white blood cells in patients’ waste fluid, enhancing patient safety, reducing hospitalization costs, and improving the accuracy of early-warning alerts.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an ultrasound-guided procedure for treating thyroid tumours. However, the current technique presents several real-time challenges for tracking the tumour due to patient movement and limited tissue contrast. RFAI seeks to enhance the RFA process by incorporating a machine learning model that outlines the residual tumour tissue in real-time. This innovation aims to simplify the procedure, improve patient outcomes, and encourage broader adoption among physicians, ultimately making this less invasive treatment more accessible to patients.