Lucas McCullum -- ME S-STEM Scholar's Research

ME S-STEM scholar, Mr. Lucas McCullum has been working on a research project related to using a PZT transducer for tumor screening in the past year.  He works in Dr. Soobum Lee's research lab in the Mechanical Engineering Department to learn how PZT transducers when attached to an object are capable of evaluating mechanical properties of the object.  PZT can convert electrical pulses to mechanical vibrations, which are affected by the mechanical properties such as stiffness of the object it attaches to.  Lucas' research is to evaluate whether a stiff tumor, when buried underneath a tissue, can be detected via analyzing the electrical and vibration signals produced by a PZT transducer attached to the tissue surface.  Lucas performed experiments in tissue-equivalent phantom gels with or without a hard object embedded to assess feasibility of this approach.  Lucas' research is currently supported by the Undergraduate Research Award he received from the Office of Undergraduate Research at UMBC.