Author: Carissa Patton | Major: Computer Engineering

My name is Carissa Patton, and I just finished my junior year as a Computer Engineering major in the College of Engineering. I started my Honors research with Dr. Alexander Nelson from the CSCE Department as my mentor. I will graduate in May of 2023 and intend to pursue either law school with an emphasis on intellectual property, specifically patents, or pursue graduate education in Computer Engineering to continue research.

This semester has been spent researching and learning about capacitive sensors as well as Velostat (a pressure sensitive sheet) so that these can be used in combination in a smart tool belt to determine changes in posture. Capacitive sensors can detect force while Velostat can detect pressure and curvature, so these sensors can be complementary to one another. Using these sensors in combination will allow for posture to more accurately be detected, so research was done as to what these could detect and how they could be used to detect curvature so that the groundwork would be complete in order to build prototypes in the fall.

This smart tool belt could be used on construction sites, where there are a plethora of repetitive stress injuries on the lumbar spine. Being able to detect when an individual moves their back into positions that might cause injuries when done repetitively could help prevent injury to them as well as help companies ensure that they are doing everything possible to help keep their employees safe in the workplace.

I found my mentor very easily as he was my academic advisor. When Dr. Nelson was advising me for classes, he suggested I start looking at who I would want to have as an Honors research mentor and that he would be willing to be my research mentor. I jumped on the opportunity to research with him and he helped me find the topic as well as had me apply for the Honors College Grant so that I could have my research funded. Dr. Nelson has been a great help in helping direct my path in terms of what to look at or try next, and the experience has been made so much more enjoyable since I am able to research alongside a friend and fellow Honors student classmate and talk with her while we both work on our different projects.

Through this last semester, I have learned how research is a constant exploration. You can try something new and open a whole new path of possibilities. It is a constant chase of the “why” certain things happen and as those “why” and “how” questions get answered, more questions appear. When I started this semester, I was using capacitive sensors but was running into issues with noise interfering with the data and there was no clear relationship between the curvature of the sensors and the data from the sensors when different curvatures were tested. Once discovering this, my mentor suggested looking into a different way to detect curvature, specifically Velostat. This had better results but there are still many questions as to how and why the data appears as it does. I discovered that I like to know exactly how I am going to reach my end result from the start, so doing research has stretched me to become more inquisitive and try to figure out the “how” as I go and learn more on the subject. I am so thankful for my research mentor for guiding me so much as I navigate these questions and learn more about how to be able to successfully create a smart tool belt that can detect posture changes.

            What’s next for me will include putting all of the knowledge together to create a prototype next semester. Once I have a prototype, I will be able to fine tune things and create a system that can detect posture. After developing the system, I will write my Honors thesis and defend it so that I can graduate as an Honors Computing Engineering major in Spring of 2023.