Resume
Tamanina Ashraf Resume (November 2024)
Research and Academic Experience
Graduate Experience
Zhu Lab
Principle Investigator: Donghui Zhu, PhD | Mentor: Tiffany Kim, MTSP
I joined the Zhu lab in August 2024 to do neuroscience and neuroengineering research. I was a teaching assistant for Dr. Zhu in my junior year of my undergrad in his Intro to Biomaterials course. This led me to reaching out during for my graduate lab rotation. I decided that I wanted to do my master’s project based on the work I do in his lab.
Currently, I am working on creating my own experimental design and training for the necessary skills to do so. I am working to build my cell culturing skills. Once I’ve built these skills, I intend to isolate primary neurons from 5XFAD mice as well as wild type mice. 5XFAD is a mouse model that is able to rapidly develop severe amyloid pathology, also referred to as amyloidosis, which is a condition where amyloid builds up as plaque in the brain and leads to functional deficits. After discussing with Tiffany, we agreed that we wanted to explore how exposing primary neurons to the cerebral secretome would affect their viability and if it would essentially reverse any of the effects due to AD. The secretome is the entire collection of proteins that are secreted by the brain, and can be derived from various cell types. I am particularly interested in exploring the use of the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) secretome, as it is involved in neuroprotection and neuro-regeneration.
5XFAD (Alzheimer’s disease model) vs wild-type mice neurons (Source)
Undergraduate Experience
Senior Design Project – Wearable Assistive Device for Obstacle Detection and Fall Notifications for the Blind and Visually Impaired Population
Belt prototype for senior design project
My senior design group worked to create a wearable device that provides obstacle detection via multiple time of flight (ToF) sensors and fall detection via a gyroscope and accelerometer sensor. Furthermore, our device provided haptic feedback via vibrational motors depending on what direction the stimulus was coming from. Additionally, after the fall was detected, a notification is sent via bluetooth to the app on the user’s phone, which stores how many times they have fallen in a given time period.
We presented this both at URECA (Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities) and at the Honors Symposium at the end of the year.
Vertically Integrated Projects
Mentor: Mei Lin Chan, PhD
- LipSync Project:
We were working on an open-source product called LipSync, initially developed by Makers Making Change. It is a lip-controlled bluetooth-enabled device that used a joystick that allows quadriplegics to use their electronic devices. Though this product already exists, we were focused on optimizing it for a professor on campus, who unfortunately passed away recently.
Internal electronics including the bluetooth chip, main, pressure, and force boards. Bluetooth chip is held in place with black electrical tape for easy housing insertion
I created a comprehensive documentation which showcased multiple mounting designs for the LipSync device. We also showcased our findings at the URECA poster presentation of May 2023.
- SMART (Student Mental Alertness and Retention Tracker) Project:
I was a part of the design team. I was involved in designing an EEG cap that would read brain waves associated with alertness and focus for students to best understand when to study. Though this project unfortunately didn’t continue due to lack of funding, I enjoyed figuring out which electrode placement was the most effective while also understanding which brain waves were essential to further the design.
Hinged headset (left): three arms with measuring electrodes at their ends attached. Headband (right): electrodes within flexible headband for more comfort, but less placement flexibility
I was also developing a mobile app concept using Figma for seamless product integration. Our findings were showcased at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Entrepreneur Challenge and the URECA poster presentation in May 2023.