Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is expected to affect over 11 million people in the US by 2030 and is the leading cause of blindness in working age Americans, despite being almost entirely preventable with timely detection, treatment, and adherence to follow-up care. To reach the over 30 million adults living with diabetes in the US, the Retinal Care-DR program is designed to eliminate the deficiencies of the current care delivery model by implementing a first-of-its-kind, end-to-end solution for DR care and blindness prevention. This will be accomplished through the application of machine learning to prioritize patients for care coordination by DR risk, development of patient-specific engagement strategies to identify and modify adherence behaviors, implementation of agent-based simulation to maximize patient health outcomes while minimizing the cost of care coordination, and the identification of care coordination strategies that result in higher rates of screening using a user-centered design process.

Globally, the polymer composite market is expected to exceed $38 billion by 2022, driven by increasing demand for high-strength, lightweight materials in the automotive, aerospace, and defense industries. This trend is highlighted by the incorporation of over 50% composites in two new commercial airliners: the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 XWB. This percentage is expected to continue to grow. However, these materials exhibit complex and poorly understood long-term behavior when subjected to a combination of structural loading, humid air/precipitation, and temperature fluctuations ������������������ a scenario that occurs in virtually all outdoor applications. Because we do not fully understand how damage forms and progresses under these conditions, we instead rely on our ability to find and fix damage once it has grown to the point of detection (usually as a visible crack in the structure) but before it has propagated far enough to cause catastrophic failure. In short, there is a lack of fundamental knowledge related to the onset and progression of damage in polymer composites under these common, combined mechanical and environmental stresses. This deficiency poses a large and growing safety risk as composite usage increases and existing composite structures continue to age. The goal of this research is to improve safety and performance of polymer composite structures by developing the fundamental relationships between combined mechanical and environmental stresses and the progression of damage using the interaction between the polymer and absorbed water as an indicator of changes in the internal structure of the composite. The result is the ability to predict damage before it is visible and before it poses an immediate safety risk. This is possible because the ability of a water molecule to rotate within a polymer composite is governed by its local molecular-scale environment. Thus, by measuring the rotational behavior of absorbed water molecules using an oscillating electromagnetic field, we can derive a picture of the molecular-level structure of the composite and observe the changes in the composite as the damage progresses from the molecular-scale to visible cracks. This research will be made accessible to students at the K-12 level by designing grade-specific hands-on activities for implementation at existing engineering summer camps coordinated by The Engineering Place at North Carolina State University. Throughout the five-year project, over 1,500 students will be directly impacted by participation in these research-related activities at the on-site camps. Concurrently with implementation at the on-site camps, a process for activity development, documentation, digitization, and consolidation of the activities into an online publicly-accessible educational resource will be formulated in an effort to reach thousands more K-12 students across North Carolina. In coordination with four local K-12 teachers serving as advisers and consultants, the on-site camp activities will be packaged, posted, and advertised such that students in under-served, rural, or isolated urban communities will have in-school access to the educational advantages derived from attending the on-site camp at NC State. Once developed, this on-site-to-online process can be continuously applied to the annual faculty-developed summer camp activities. As a result, the educational value of the faculty-designed camp activities will be distributed to thousands of students across the state of North Carolina instead of being limited to the on-site attendees, with an initial focus on reaching students in rural and isolated urban communities; students who would otherwise not envision themselves as engineers and, lacking that vision, would not pursue STEM careers that they view as atypical of their community, social or economic status, race, ethnicity, or gender. This research-driven outreach and educational program is intended to combat that trend, and provide easy access to quality STEM educational resources for K-12 schools in geographically, culturally, or socio-econom

Experimental and computational investigation of textile composites

Current spacecraft structures are limited by packaging efficiency for storage in launch vehicles, often requiring intricate folding patterns, resulting in thin delicate structures. Current and future demands are requesting larger structures for storage, power generation, formation of staging bases for deep space travel. All of these needs will rely on in-space assembly to create larger structures that are not limited to the constraints of launch vehicle dimensions. These structures still need to be made out of light weight and collapsible components, however due to their larger nature they need to have the ability to survive for longer durations of time and also have the ability to be reconfigured after some time in orbit for new missions of changing needs. These structures must be able to work in both zero-g concepts along with on surface applications such as lunar, and Martian conditions. This research effort will focus on in-space structure assembly concepts. These can include both composite and metallic structures or a combination of the two. This effort will look at developing new structures or sub-components of structures for in-space assembly. During design the materials and components need to be well understood so that we can understand how they would behave to environments that can include things like, micrometeorites, thermal changes, prolonged UV exposures, to name a few. Structures can be evaluated prior to exposures and then look at again after exposure. This work will also look at the stability and scalability or large structures. Evaluation for assembly and re-assembly will be looked at to understand how a structure can be reconfigured on orbit to a changing mission. As these structures are designed to last for long periods of time these structures must be investigated to understand how robust they are and will be investigated under various different conditions and types of loading.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. The number of people with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is expected to exceed 100 million by 2040. The first-line therapy for glaucoma treatment is patient-administered hypotensive medication delivered topically via an eye drop to reduce intraocular pressure. However, patient compliance with glaucoma drop therapy is a persistent and well-known problem without a viable solution. Studies have consistently shown the extent of the problem: nearly 50% of individuals discontinue topical ocular hypotensive therapy entirely within six months of their first prescription; of those that persist beyond six months, only 37% continue the therapy after three years; and only 10% of those prescribed glaucoma drops are persistent (without gaps) over the first year. This widespread failure to adhere dramatically reduces the effectiveness of eye drops in reducing intraocular pressure and delaying the progression of glaucoma. The prevalence of glaucoma and the magnitude of the adherence issue has led to the development of numerous alternative treatment therapies, including implantable slow-release drugs and minimally-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS). Likewise, technological solutions of varying complexity for tracking glaucoma drop adherence have been proposed by several groups. Retinal Care������������������s proposed solution is fundamentally different. The tool proposed here is a relatively straightforward, inexpensive combination of sensors designed to provide crucial feedback to patients, providers, and payers on the way a patient interacts with an eye drop applicator. This interaction, which includes both tactile and motion data via a force-sensitive resistor (FSR) and an accelerometer, can be leveraged to actively monitor drop adherence and drop administration mechanics. More importantly, that data can be used to provide decision support on how and when to intervene with the patient, how and when to incentivize, how and when to educate (on correct drop administration, for example), and, crucially, when to forego drop therapy entirely and transition to something less dependent on patient compliance such as minimally-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) or an implanted slow-release drug formulation. Retinal Care approaches eye care, and health care in general, more holistically than traditional companies; recognizing the behavioral and psychosocial factors that are a root cause of blindness from manageable diseases like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. While Retinal Care employs cutting-edge technology such as deep learning, novel electroretinography tools, and the device proposed here, we understand and work actively toward implementing technology in a way that translates directly to improved quality of life for our patients by managing the entire care path. The ability to track glaucoma adherence alone, for example, does nothing to reduce blindness. The technology proposed here, while novel in design, is not intended primarily as an eye drop tracking tool, though we expect it will accomplish that sub-goal with greater effectiveness and at less cost than any product on the market or in development. Instead, it is designed explicitly to reduce blindness by providing Retinal Care the crucial data needed to tailor our interaction and intervention strategies to the individual patient; to maximize patient engagement in their glaucoma care through a combination of incentivization, education, tailored communications, and interaction with trained care coordinators.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a lack of protective equipment not only in high-risk hospital settings, but also in non-hospital settings which require close contact with patients such as ophthalmology, optometry, dentistry, and others. The protection factor of N95 masks and plastic face shields are not sufficient in these settings, and a more protective device is required. The goal of this project is to develop a breathable film or fabric that can serve as a platform technology for multiple form factors, such as powered air purifying respirators. This project will focus on improving the protective factor of such devices while keeping costs low enough to support wide deployment in the fields mentioned above. Usability, performance, and cost will be primary factors governing design and manufacturing decisions.