Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering Elliot Brown, Ph.D., has been leading a team of six along with Postdoctoral Research Associate Weidong Zhang, Ph.D., in various projects at the Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration building at Wright State University.
Projects include violet light emitters and opioid detection technology. “They are very disjoint, but these are [both] projects we’re all working on,” Brown said.
In the fall, they began looking at utilizing their technology to assist law enforcement and other individuals in opioid detection. “We were reading the news report about an officer and nurse being exposed to fentanyl,” Zhang said. “Our technology may be applied to testing for opioids, the device may be able to test for fentanyl to prevent accidental overdoses like in the news report.”
In early Feb., researchers hosted a tour of the facility and displayed their work for 17 members of Wright State and Air Force Research Lab.
The lab also offers Wright State students the opportunity to grow and learn in Brown and Zhang’s research.
Wright State sophomore Abbie Ashbulgh who is a psychology major with a concentration in behavioral neuroscience and pre-med, has been working with this team since Jan. “This has been really fun and educational,” she said. “I feel like I have learned a lot in a short amount of time. I think this is really important because it can change the way we look at the field of medicine.”
Kent Fagon, undergraduate student in biomedical has also been working with the team. “It’s been an interesting learning curve; I’ve done a lot of my own learning because of the [my] background but this has been a great opportunity to learn.”
“it’s been a great experience to have a room and lab whenever I need it, said Andrea Mingardi, a third year Ph.D., student. It’s been interesting being part of this project carrying out the idea to final project, to see simulation to bringing it to life.”
Andrea Mingardi, a third year Ph.D., student said, “it’s been a great experience to have a room and lab whenever I need it. It’s been interesting being part of this project carrying out the idea to final project, to see simulation to bringing it to life.”
Research with UV/microwave radiation was successful in detection of bio particles and sterilizing water device, according to Brown the Terahertz Sensors Group.
“We are all over the spectrum; we try not to work on radiation itself,” Brown said. “We also look at devices that produce radiation and detect radiation.”
The research has been ongoing since Apr. 2015. Brown and Zhang hope to further their research in creating technology to sense opioids and in making more affordable sources of UV light.
