Diabetes affects 9.3% of the American population. The current point-of-care sensor for diabetes involves invasive finger pricking which can be painful for patients. We aim to miniaturize and improve the current design of a high-resolution Raman sensor capable of obtaining molecular fingerprint of the chemicals through the skin via noninvasive sensing. The current system has a miniature grating & sensor but is missing two critical elements. The goal of this SuperUROP is to design and fabricate a battery powered miniature laser assembly and the optics to direct the light from the laser to the skin and into the spectrometer.

My first research experience in the Barron Lab at Rice University under Alvin Orbaek synthesizing carbon nanotubes was published in Journal of Applied Materials A. Last year, I learned the design process in Neri OxmanÕs Mediated Matters group in the Media Lab. This past summer, I ran experiments to mitigate risks on a fiber optics telemetry project at Halliburton exposing me to optics & electronics.