1. Bacteria Counter Wade May Co-Advisors: Dr. Todd Giorgio, Ph.D Dr. Bob Galloway, Ph.D Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University

2. Problem/Market Chemical plants and treatment facilities have large volumes of fluid traveling through piping systems. –This fluid is always susceptible to bacterial contamination. There is not a quick, cheap, and accurate way to measure bacterial concentrations in these fluids. –Current methods take 24 hours to give an estimate of bacterial concentrations. –At large plants, 24 hours of unusable products can represent a loss in excess of $100,000. Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University

3. Goals/Objectives Develop a simple, effective device that will measure bacterial concentrations in an aqueous medium. The device should be relatively cheap (expensive methods already exist). Measurements should be available in a short period of time (less than 10 minutes). The device should perform its task with minimal or no safety hazards. Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University

4. Proposed Solution Separate bacteria in a strong magnetic field and measure the induced voltage due to their charge. This could be added online in a facility such as a chemical plant. This device would be fairly inexpensive, safe, and could provide real-time measurements. Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University

5. Background (Physics) A magnetic field induces a force on a moving particle according to the following cross product (- charge): Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University F = qv x B q is the charge, v is the velocity, B is the magnetic field, F is the induced force + – V (induced voltage)

6. Pump NorthSouth Flow Induced Voltage B-Field Fluid Bath Stirrer Injected Charged Particles Overall System Design Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University

7. Work Completed Literature search. Web site design. Faculty meetings and discussions. System design. Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University

8. Future Work Gather all materials needed for a rough prototype. Build and test system with saline. Scale down system to smaller charged particles. Design additional circuitry as necessary for amplification. Choose specific bacteria to work with. Dept. of Biomedical EngineeringCopyright © 1999 Vanderbilt University