PNP
Pneumatic Nipple Project
Individualized medicine for infant feeding physiology.
Introduction video
About
The goal of this project is to design a device capable of instantaneously adjusting its physical properties to facilitate safe and effective feeding in infants. Feeding problems in infants are incredibly common, especially in compromised populations such as those born prematurely. These challenges are so prevalent, that the primary criterion for discharge from a hospital after being born are effective oral feeding skills. Feeding difficulties can arise from multiple mechanisms, and different populations experience different challenges with feeding. Furthermore, we have a poor understanding of what performance is in infant feeding. Clinicians typically view ‘performance’ as ‘did an infant aspirate (choke)’, and design interventions to reduce the frequency of aspiration. However, healthy infants aspirate approximately 20% of the time, and have no other health issues, suggesting that the focus on aspiration may limit our understanding of feeding performance.
Despite the myriad of etiologies that lead to pathophysiology in infant feeding, there is essentially only one treatment, which is to decrease milk flow. However, this problem focuses only on the outcome of feeding (did an infant aspirate or not), and does not address the underlying mechanisms giving rise to that problem. Thus, these treatments must be chronic, and do nothing to facilitate improved performance in infants. We also have a poor understanding of what parts of the feeding system are capable of responding to variation in sensation, which hinders our ability to design effective interventions that target the specific mechanism that is giving rise to feeding problems. We know that variation in nipple properties leads to variation in infant physiology, but lack an understanding of how that variation is reflected by changes in the neuromotor system.
In this project, we will design a nipple whose properties can be adjusted in real time while an infant is feeding. We will use this nipple to measure the potential for motor learning in different parts of the feeding system, and to match a nipple's properties to an infant's physiology to facilitate safe and effective feeding in an individual. This represents an important step forward in our understanding of and treatment for infant feeding challenges, as it moves us from a ‘one size fits all’ approach, to a more nuanced design whereby we can use individualized medicine to facilitate performance. Specifically, we will design a nipple that can be modified to instantaneously change milk flow rate and instantaneously alter nipple stiffness. Stretch goals could be to include an ability to vary nipple length, or to have a controllable valve to enable milk with variable properties (ie viscosities) to flow through the outlet.
Joshua Cordova
Josh Cordova is a Mechanical Engineering student at NAU, serving as project manager and CAD engineer for this capstone team. He is responsible for running meetings, setting up the schedule for the team. He will be using his skills and understanding of SolidWorks and manufacturing to assist the team in creating the pinch valve system for this project. He is excited to assist Dr. Mayerl and the biomedical department in their research.
Charles Guzman
Charles Guzman is majoring Mechanical Engineering at NAU, he is the logistics manager of the team so he will be in charge of communicating with the team and allocating resources to them if needed. This person will also be responsible for scheduling meetings and keeping the client Dr. Mayerl informed on the current status of the project. Charles is eager to work on this project since he knows this the the final chapter of his college career, and is excited to use all the knowledge gained over these last few years to complete this projcet and give Dr. Mayerl something the team is proud of.
Fabian Martinez
Fabian Martinez is a student at NAU majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He is the financial manager of the PNP group being in charge of keeping track of the budget and keeping track of the bill of materials. Fabian will also be the main lead of making the circuits and coding arduino to control the electronics for the PNP. He is ecstatic to make use of what he has learned in pursuit of his ME bachelor's degree and hopes to gain positive experience out of this project.
Mark Mallari
Mark Mallari is majoring in Mechanical Engineering at NAU. Serving as the test engineer for his capstone team, Mark is responsible for overseeing the experimental design and testing. Mark hopes to sharpen his skills and utilize this project to gain experience that can lead to a job ensuing his graduation in the Fall 2023 semester. Mark is excited to be collaborating with NAU’s very own Dr. Mayerl along with the biomedical department and has high hopes for what he and his team members will accomplish!
Christian Fonseca
Christian Fonseca is majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Modern Language (Spanish) at NAU. As a manufacturing engineer, Christian assists in the construction and testing of current design concepts. In his ME 495 class, he was in charge of performing experiments to collect data that might be utilized to decide which pinch valve design was more efficient. Christian aspires to strengthen his design abilities as well as his grasp of fluid flow in a pipe and how changing tube diameter impacts flow rate through this capstone project. Christian is excited to be collaborating with NAU's biomedical department in the aim of developing a baby bottle with adjustable flow rate to optimize infant feeding.