Bowen Zhang, March 2018
CUMULATIVE REFLECTION
The first time I started studying at Iowa State University was in fall 2015 as an international exchange student. After one semester of studying, I felt that I have gained more skills than what I could have gotten from my previous college, so I immediately decided to transfer to Iowa State to finish my undergraduate study began in fall 2016.
The learning atmosphere in our department is great that a lot of students work hard every day to reach their goals. TLA is always full of students even in the late night, and students are discussing about their projects or focus on their own work. I remember there were several times that my friends and I spent a whole night preparing the hard exams or doing projects. They all became my precious memories.
They are also a great number of research opportunities for undergraduate students. I joined Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) lab when I just transferred here, and by following Dr. Jiles and his PhD student, I found my interest in brain and neural engineering. We used Sim4life software to simulate the precision and strength of the electrical field in the brain using head models from the MRI data. The problem with TMS was that the electrical field created by the coils was not focused enough on a small region of neurons. As the first step to solve this problem, we designed a special coil called a Quadruple Butterfly Coil and increased the precision by 11.6%. Second, we used a passive ferromagnetic material and put it near the head as a shield to absorb or reflect electrical field in the brain. After the second step, we improved the precision by 21.4% [2]. On the third step, we varied shapes, positions, and permeability of the shield to improve the results [1]. As a part of TMS group, I did not only design the shields, but also wrote Python scripts to make simulations running automatically and created tools using MATLAB to analyze simulation data in order to find E-Max brain, A-Half, V-Half, and E-Max head (these parameters are explained in Quadruple Butterfly Coil With Passive Magnetic Shielding for Focused Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation [2]).
Throughout these 2 years, I took a variety of elective courses to enhance my basic knowledge, including Embedded Systems (CPRE 288), Deep Learning (EE526X), Control Systems (EE 475), and JAVA (COMS 227). I also took some courses online to meet my interests, including Python for Data Science from Udemy, and Machine Learning and Deep Learning from Coursera. My self-learning skill, problem solving skill, and team working skill were developed by working on the classes’ projects (please refer to my resume).
The knowledge I learned from Embedded Systems course (CPRE 288) led me to an internship in summer 2017 with Signal Center for Health Innovation, a healthcare company. I created wireless devices using NRF51822 chip with sensors to detect how long and how many times a person stands and sits each day. During the internship, I understood the process of using embedded systems to build tools for bioengineering research.
I am proud that I can spend three year of life in ECpE department at Iowa State University. At here, I do not only learn theories, but also lots of hands-on experiences, which can help me easily dive into industrial world after graduation.
References
[1] P. Rastogi, B. Zhang, Y. Tang, E. G. Lee, R. L. Hadimani, and D. C. Jiles, “Investigation of shape, position, and permeability of shielding material in quadruple butterfly coil for focused transcranial magnetic stimulation,” AIP Advances, vol. 8, no. 5, p. 056705, Dec. 2017.
[2] P. Rastogi, Y. Tang, B. Zhang, E. Lee, R. Hadimani and D. Jiles, "Quadruple Butterfly Coil With Passive Magnetic Shielding for Focused Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation", IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 1-5, 2017.