Venous leg ulcers affect nearly 6 million people in the US. One treatment approach is the application of a compression bandage to the ulcer; however, the lack of adequately gauging bandage pressure results in suboptimal outcomes. The aim of this project is to evaluate the potential of incorporating optical pressure indicators into the bandages. The key component of the proposed bandage pressure indicators are color- tunable elastic photonic fibers. Radial variations in layer thickness in these fibers cause a band shift resulting in a variation of the fiber color. Incorporating these fibers into compression bandages and measuring the optical changes with applied mechanical pressure will provide the data to assess the potential of this approach for determining the optimum pressure.

I have worked in the lab for Bio-inspired Photonic Engineering for over a year characterizing color tunable elastic photonic fibers and evaluating the industrial scalability of the process. I hope to evaluate the potential for integrating these fibers into commercial applications such as compression bandages so that those afflicted will be able to utilize this technology for improved healing.”