5/6/2025 Ben Libman
Pediatrician Dennis Dietzen saw how even routine blood draws can be painful and exhausting for children, especially infants forced to give adult-sized samples. This fall and again this spring, capstone teams in professors Holly Golecki and Jenny Amos’s bioengineering courses tackled that challenge head-on by designing a low-volume blood testing system that requires far less blood for accurate clinical analysis. Led by M.Eng. students, these senior teams applied their interdisciplinary skills to prototype and pitch real-world solutions to this and other problems.
Written by Ben Libman
For children, one of the worst parts of visiting the doctor is having your blood drawn. Besides being painful, pediatric tests are often complicated by the amount of blood needed for diagnostics. Even infants may need to provide full, adult-sized blood samples, which can be painful and exhausting.
Pediatrician Dennis Dietzen witnessed this problem firsthand. He wanted his patients to receive the same level of care with less pain. He approached bioengineering at Illinois, where a group of students is designing a solution as their capstone project. In Fall 2024, a group developed a system that uses significantly less blood to run clinical tests, making a trip to the doctor’s office a breeze.
“Our client is aware of the difficulties with current technology,” said one student who helped design the system for small-volume biochemical analysis. “Our project is inspired by his desire for a better technology available for people like him to use.”
The capstone project, led by bioengineering professors Holly Golecki and Jenny Amos, is the culmination of all the skills students have acquired these past four years. Starting with a real-world problem, students design, prototype, and present their solutions in the capstone showcase. “It is amazing to support our bioengineering students applying their interdisciplinary skills to such a wide variety of healthcare challenges,” said professor Holly Golecki. “From new biomaterials to circuits, our students are able to tackle real clinical and healthcare needs through this design experience."
The students took on a wide variety of projects. One group created an over-ear stimulation device designed to help people with sensory or communication disorders. Another team manufactured a bra for patients recovering from breast cancer surgery. There were air and water filtering devices, diagnostic software, and a brace to aid in the recovery of torn ligaments.
Each team of senior undergraduates was led by a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) student. According to program director Jenny Amos, “The M.Eng. students are learning to manage a team and client relations in a high-pressure environment, which sets them up for managerial roles in the future. They have already shown a lot of growth in their skills this fall, and I look forward to seeing them lead the teams in the spring. I’m so proud of them.”
Another student team developed a model urinary tract, allowing researchers to test different catheter designs before human trials to ensure safety. “It’s really rewarding to work with a company in the real world because we know our project has applications that will affect a whole company and make an impact outside the university,” said one student on the project, which was sponsored by Hollister Ostomy. Hollister’s representative on the project, Abram Janis, heard about the capstone program through an Illinois graduate. While Hollister Ostomy supports student projects at multiple universities, Janis has enjoyed working with Illinois: “Illinois gets ideas that are more ready to be translated,” said Janis. “Having master’s students oversee the projects is very unique.”
The bioengineering capstone course is the perfect culmination of four years of bioengineering instruction. By solving a real medical problem before they even graduate, bioengineering students are proving they’re prepared to tackle anything. Senior Brendan O’Rourke puts it best: “It’s a great way to see how the engineering skills you’ve developed in the past three and a half years at Illinois can impact the lives of others for the better.” That’s another way students in the Department of Bioengineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are shaping the future of bioengineering.
The spring senior design showcase will take place on Thursday, May 8th, from 9:30am-11:00am in Everitt Lab, room 1302, and is open for all who want to attend.
Holly Golecki is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jenny Amos is a Laura Hahn Faculty Fellow. She is the director of the Master of Engineering program and Teaching Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.