Student research into safeguarding astronauts has a personal twist

Safeguarding astronauts as they spend time in space is a top priority for NASA and researching the best methods of achieving that goal is essential. Just ask electrical engineer alumna Marie Bridges, B.S.‘21, now a leadership development program associate at Rockwell Automation.

Bridges was awarded funding from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium during her senior year to work on a project with a personal twist.

“I have a hormone condition that impacts millions of women in the U.S.,” says Bridges. “It affects fertility and wellbeing, but there is little scientific understanding of its cause. That’s why I wanted to develop a project that can enable research at NASA as well as possibly support fertility research down the road.”

Bridges’ idea for the project materialized when she learned that the industry standards for measuring hormone concentration are expensive and require large equipment, which can be problematic in space. She developed the concept for a senior design project along with Alex Whipple, B.S.’21, now an electrical engineer at Byce & Associates. Bridges and Whipple presented their project, “A Fully Flexible Handheld Wireless Estrogen Sensing Device,” at the 2022 International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems.

“Our motivation was to make it easier for NASA to study the long-term health effects in space, including reproductive health and biological rhythms,” says Bridges. “Our system required much less analyte and material than conventional systems, as well as utilizing a cost-effective fabrication process.”

For the senior design project, Bridges and Whipple worked with faculty advisor Dr. Massood Atashbar to define, develop and test a viable printed electronic estrogen sensor. They also collaborated with the Center for Advanced Smart Sensors and Structures to produce a complete battery-powered, flexible, wireless printed circuit board for sensor data measurements that can be recorded to any nearby Bluetooth-enabled device.  The result is a fully functional IOT measurement device that can be easily worn by a person to continuously monitor estrogen levels.