Undergraduate Research Assistant
On-Campus Job/Research for Academic Credit, Harvey Mudd College Biophotonics Lab
The Harvey Mudd College Biophotonics Lab works to democratize access to biomedical optical instruments by building on existing methods. The project I worked on was the development of a low-cost, open-source in vivo imaging system. Commercial in vivo imaging systems have a wide range of powerful imaging capabilities, but are very expensive and inaccessible to many small institutions. This project would help democratize access to these imaging capabilities at a similar sensitivity level while remaining easy for manufacture and set up in a home or school setting.
Key experiences and outcomes include: - Refined/redesigned an open-source, low-cost in vivo imaging system (OpenIVIS) - Collaborated with two undergraduate students to refine to work on this project - Reduced the production cost of the IVIS by over 99% compared to commercial systems - Improved the laser speckle contrast and bioluminescence imaging capabilities compared to the base OpenIVIS system, successfully processing collected images using Python - Deployed the system in a separate research lab setting - The system was used for imaging iLux and NanoLuc enzymes at Claremont McKenna College’s Rathbun Lab - Plotted intensity vs photon count, intensity vs enzyme concentration, and concentration vs photon count using Python - Experimented and troubleshot the setup for optimal imaging capabilities - Troubleshot Raspberry Pi hardware components using oscilloscopes and software using Terminal - Devised experimental optics setups (using traditional components and 3D printed stands) and configured them for optimal magnification - Authored and presented technical documentation - Wrote white papers, updated documentation, and presented on progress to other Engineering researchers - Wrote and presented a poster about Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging and OpenIVIS at the Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research in November 2025