This research aims at the design and realization of a high-precision, low-cost, handheld, pulsed-based, reflection-sensing imaging module in microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies. The device termed the Time-Domain Ultra-Wideband Synthetic Imager (TUSI) would be capable of accurately detecting minute reflections and by capturing the data from multiple transceivers form a synthesized image of the object. The transceivers are synchronized using a common reference clock and individual locking circuits. The TUSI system is designed for battery operation and given the integrated processing unit, could be interfaced to a laptop PC or another display device for image visualization. Some of the applications are the detection of breast cancer, leukemia, melanoma and also non-invasive blood glucose monitoring as well as assessment of internal injuries at the accident site.
Year: 2009
San Quentin All Access Computer Center
Through the introduction of an all-access computer center at San Quentin State prison, we propose a feasibility study and a pilot impact study of computer training in two distinct educational programs: one program will focus on instructing basic computer literacy to inmate students in the GED preparation class, and the other will concentrate on teaching advanced computer-aided design (CAD) to inmate-students in the prison’s vocational-training machine shop. This will be the first study of the ability of Information Technology to reduce the crisis of overcrowding in California’s prisons. This project has the full support of San Quentin’s administration and expands upon a thriving service-learning project that we coordinate, in which 70 UC Berkeley undergraduates teach and tutor weekly at San Quentin.
Point of Care Device
We are developing a novel, easy-to-use, patent-pending, point-of-care platform for multiplexed, digital disease detection. We have applied digital Integrated
Circuit (IC) technology, the same technology that has underpinned the IT revolution, to encapsulate the performance of a laboratory assay in the palm of the hand. We envision that our device will be capable of communicating with computers via Ethernet and with cell phones via Bluetooth to enable truly distributed, low-overhead, diagnostic testing.
Pinoleville Pomo Nation (TELUS)
The project is a partnership between the Pinoleville-Pomo Nation (PPN) and the University of California, Berkeley. The purpose of this project is to develop a series of community-based service learning modules (CBSLM) in which graduate and undergraduate students at UC Berkeley will partner with members of the PPN to co-design a Tribal Energy, Land Use, and Sustainability (TELUS) Plan. The TELUS plan will aid the PPN in achieving their sovereignty, economic self-sufficiency, and environmental goals, as well as educating students at UC Berkeley and members of the PNN about designing sustainable communities, using the tenets of human-centered design.
Metamouse: Technology to Aid Multiple Users in Sharing Existing Applications
Technology to Aid Multiple Users in Sharing Existing Applications: We propose an easy to implement interaction system that allows multiple users to share existing applications without modification. We call this system Metamouse. Metamouse provides each user their own mouse and cursor. These cursors are then mapped down to one metacursor, which interacts with the existing applications. This allows the applications to see just one cursor, as they expect, but the cursor is controlled by many students at once. Our preliminary tests have shown that this interaction paradigm is viable and achieves our goal of involving multiple students more thoroughly in a learning activity. We feel that with proper execution, this technology has the potential to enrich educational environments all over the world.
Men’s Story Project
The Men’s Story Project (MSP) is a replicable, performance-based, community discussion project through which participants critically examine social ideas about masculinity. The MSP mission is to strengthen social norms that support healthy masculinities and gender equality, and to help eliminate gender-based violence, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and other oppressions that are intertwined with masculinities, through ongoing events of men’s public story-sharing and collective dialogue. The Bears Breaking Boundaries funds are supporting: a) bringing a production of the MSP to UCB in April 2009, b) filming the production for educational use, and c) conducting a qualitative study with UCB students and MSP presenters regarding project content, process, and perceived short-term impacts, to inform development of a Masculinity Studies DeCal and UCB MSP initiative for the 2009-10 academic year.
Hyoumanity
Patients facing the most complex and difficult diagnoses sometimes see dozens of doctors and spend years searching for answers. Ultimately, resolving many of these cases depends upon matching a patient with a unique, complex, and potentially rare condition to the doctor with the expertise, experience, and insight to recognize and diagnose it. By providing a forum that allows patients to post a structured medical profile and offer a monetary reward for information leading to a diagnosis, Hyoumanity flips diagnostic search around, giving doctors both a mechanism and incentive to find the patients they can help. Using the reach of the web and the power of market forces to better match patient needs with distributed medical expertise will help to lower medical costs, improve health outcomes, and alleviate pain and suffering.
Disability Awareness through Sport
The Disability Awareness Through Sport (DATS) project partners UC Berkeley and the Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (BORP) in a collaborative effort to increase disability awareness and student service on the Cal campus and in the surrounding Berkeley community. These two organizations will work together to implement a course in which students will use the sport of wheelchair basketball as a framework for exploring issues of disability awareness, advocacy, and outreach. In addition to learning how to play wheelchair basketball, students will also work in close collaboration with BORP as mentors, coaches, and community organizers.
CINCH: Cell Phone Technologies to Increase Nigerian Community Health
This project aims to determine suitable mobile technologies that will improve the health care system in Nigeria. Cell phone technologies are the most efficient way to get information to the majority of citizens in cities and in rural areas. Most of Nigeria does not have access to a constant electricity source. Mobile phones are much more versatile than computers or the Internet because they do not require electricity to run. Data can be collected and disseminated regardless of what the situation is regarding electricity. Mobile technologies are also a means to collect health information and surveys in a more organized manor.