Our goal for this project was to create a microfluidic system that could detect the concentration of any unknown solution with the use of an rgb sensor. For this project, we had to detect the concentration of fluorescein in the solution given to us. Our team created a chip made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) along with housing that would prevent light pollution to the chip and hold our electronic components. In order to fill the requirements of the project successfully, our team split up and focused on specialized tasks. This included learning how to laser cut, 3D print, code with arduino, circuit analysis, and learn chemical calibration. As we progressed throughout these ten weeks and learned these new skills, we proceeded with the construction of the system that would meet the design requirements.
We completed the system over a span of ten weeks. The first two weeks were spent brainstorming a design for a system, and deciding the size of the staging wells, detection well, waste well, and channels. After that, our mechanical and electrical hardware team spent the third and fourth week creating a preliminary design for the chip and the housing. Our design was then approved and we spent week five finalizing the details and modifying our design with the advice of our advisor. Once the design was finalized, we began the fabrication process by building the housing, cutting out the chip cover, creating the mold for the PDMS, and fabricating the PDMS chip. We also began the coding process during the sixth week, and this continued with the flowchart, troubleshooting, and debugging up until the final competition. We completed the fabrication of the system during week eight, which is also when we created the stock solutions and began calibration. This also continued until the final competition. We were able to meet our goal of detecting the amount of fluorescein in the solutions with the RGB sensor, though our results were not what we had expected. This could be due to an error in the fabrication of the system itself and the equipment, or some small errors in the code.
Throughout this process we did not only gain technical knowledge in the programs we used, but also the process of engineering. We learned that time management for this project was extremely important, as we had deadlines for several different aspects of the project, as well as the challenging and time consuming process of trial and error. Though we may have had brilliant ideas that should have worked on paper, reality presented us with several challenges. However, this also allowed us to focus on the importance of communication and teamwork, as well as working with others in the field of engineering.