DCU-Final-Year-Projects-Booklet-2025

120 264. Developing aNovel Alginate Coral Composite for In Vitro Cell Expansion and Tissue Engineering – External Gelation This project is designed around the development of a novel alginate-coral composite for in vitro cell expansion and tissue engineering applications. It will seek tomanufacture and test an alginate hydrogel combined with coral powder to support the in vitromanufacturing of humanMesenchymal StemCells (MSCs) and investigate their priming for orthopaedic applications. Student Programme Biomedical Engineering (Year 5) Project Area Biomedical Engineering, Tissue Engineering Project Technology Excel/VB Student Name(s) Sergei Sandu Email sergei.sandu2@mail.dcu.ie Supervisor Dr Owen Clarkin 265. Mechanics of Hydrogel Biliary Stent Expansion –Material Characterisation and Finite Element Analysis This project aims to investigate the mechanics of a PVA hydrogel biliary stent proposed by two papers written by Nagakawa et al. Material testing of PVA hydrogel tubes was carried out, information from which was used to informa finite element analysis (FEA) using Ansys. This FEAwas used to simulate the tube’s behaviour when placed in the bile duct as a formof stent. This behaviour was investigated in order to verify whether the use of PVA hydrogel tubes to re-open constricted bile ducts was a viable alternative to current stentingmethods Student Programme Biomedical Engineering (Year 5) Project Area 3-DModelling, Biomedical Engineering, Finite Element Analysis, Materials Testing, Properties of Polymers Project Technology ANSYSWorkbench Student Name(s) AndrewCoughlan Email andrew.coughlan22@mail.dcu.ie Supervisor Dr Garrett McGuinness 266. Developing a Cost-Effective Drop-Down Live ViewVideo System for Imaging of Subtidal Benthic Habitats This project aims to develop a platformof lights and cameras that can be sunk to the ocean floor up to depths of 100metres that can gather images to be viewed in real-time, but also recorded for later analysis. This involves the designing andmanufacturing of the rig and the implementation of the electronics in a water and pressure-safe way. The information gathered is invaluable to conservation efforts for various types of flora and fauna found in Irish coastal waters. This systemprovides highly detailed information about limited areas of subtidal benthic habitats, rather than general information about wider areas, as is available through methods such as side-scan andmultibeam sonar, along with these methods being expensive and potentially disruptive tomarine life. Student Programme Mechatronic Engineering (Year 5) Project Area 3-DModelling, Image/Video Processing, RaspberryPi Project Technology Python, Solidworks Student Name(s) Sean Hunt Email sean.hunt9@mail.dcu.ie Supervisor Dr Owen Clarkin