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Undergraduate Research and Publication

Over the years, I have been involved in a few undergraduate projects that have led to professional publication. Because I am particularly proud of the initiative and hard work of these students, I itemize their contributions here:

2011–2012: During the 2011–2012 academic year, I co-advised a senior project (MQP) completed by an interdisciplinary group of four WPI undergraduates who worked with WPI Prof. Greg Fisher. These students developed a novel hand orthotic whose eventual application aims to aid in rehabilitation therapy for stroke victims and others who lose the ability to fully control their hand. This group published two conference papers on their work.
- M. A. Delph II, S. A. Fischer, P. W. Gauthier, C. H. Martinez Luna, E. A. Clancy and G. S. Fischer. "Development of a Cable Driven Flexible Robotic Rehabilitation Glove." Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2012 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, 2012.
- Michael A. Delph II, Sarah A. Fischer, Phillip W. Gauthier, Carlos H. Martinez Luna, Edward A. Clancy and Gregory S. Fischer. "A Soft Robotic Exomusculature Glove with Integrated sEMG Sensing for Hand Rehabilitation." International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), Seattle, Washington, 24-26 June, 2013.
2011–2012: During the 2011–2012 academic year, a group of five WPI undergraduates entered a national design competition: the "Cornell Cup USA, presented by Intel." The students were selected as competition finalists. In this design competition, students used an Intel Atom processor to implement an embedded design of their choice. This team developed a system that monitors a person's heart rate using a photonic sensor and estimates the level of "drowsiness." Applications include use as a warning system for drowsy drivers or other situations where loss of attention could become a safety hazard. Their conference paper describes some of their scientific work in relating heart rate to drowsiness.
- Yichao Joy Xu, Fangjie Ding, Zhongjie Wu, Jun Wang, Quanquan Ma, Ki Chon, Edward Clancy, Michael Qin, Yitzhak Mendelson, Ningxin Fu, Sinan Assad, Susan Jarvis and Xinming Huang. "Drowsiness Control Center by Photoplythesmogram." 2012 IEEE 38th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, 16–18 March, 2012.
2010–2011: During the 2010–2011 academic year, Dan Moyer completed his four-year BS-MS program of study. While still an undergraduate, Dan worked on a team-based research project with graduate students Pu Liu and Lukai Liu. Their work studied ways in which to relate the electrical activity of upper-limb muscles to the torque produced about the elbow joint. We published this work in a top journal for bioelectric signal processing, as well as at a regional conference.
- Edward A. Clancy, Lukai Liu, Pu Liu and Daniel V. Moyer. "Identification of Constant-Posture EMG-Torque Relationship About the Elbow Using Nonlinear Dynamic Models." IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 205-212, 2012.
- Lukai Liu, Pu Liu, Daniel V. Moyer and Edward A. Clancy. "System Identification of Non-Linear, Dynamic EMG-Torque Relationship About the Elbow." 2011 IEEE 37th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, 1-3 April, 2011.
2009–2010: During the 2009–2010 academic year, three WPI undergraduates designed a prototype hand-held simulator device that mimics the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles when they contract. The device was designed for a local company (Liberating Technologies, Inc.) that designs prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by the electrical activity of remnant muscles. The prototype device can be used to test the operation of these prostheses, both "in the field" by prosthetists and "in the laboratory" by technicians who are repairing the limbs
- S. Patrick, J. Meklenburg, S. Jung, Y. Mendelson and E. A. Clancy. "An Electromyogram Simulator for Myoelectric Prosthesis Testing." 2010 IEEE 36th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, pp. 1-2, 26-28 March, 2010.
2005: In certain EMG (electromyogram) applications, the EMG signal is "marked" at many different locations corresponding to important events occurring in the signal. These marks must be verified via comparison to a "gold" standard (if/when available) or else cross-checked between different raters. Ryan Carey worked on an algorithm to standardize the method of comparison. We published a conference paper on the method and Ryan also produced software for making the comparison.
- R. M. Carey and E. A. Clancy, "EMG decomposition annotation comparison method," Proceedings of the IEEE 31st Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, IEEE, pp. 100-101, 2005.
2004–2005: During the 2004–2005 academic year, three WPI undergraduates conducted a research project as part of their regular undergraduate program (see more information below under "Graduate Trajectory MQPs"). Their project adapted EMG (electromyogram) signal processing algorithms for use in applications such as functional electrical stimulation (e.g., to help replace function after spinal cord injury).
- John A. Tranquilli, Christian A. Salini, Punit Prakash, Donald R. Brown and Edward A. Clancy, "Optimal Electromyogram Amplitude Estimation Algorithm for Epoch-Based Applications," Proceedings of the Fifteenth Congress of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology, (ISBN # 0-87270-136-0) Boston, MA, pp. 69, June 18-21, 2004.
- Punit Prakash, Christian A. Salini, John A. Tranquilli, Donald R. Brown and Edward A. Clancy, "Adaptive Whitening in Electromyogram Amplitude Estimation for Epoch-Based Applications," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 331-334, 2005.
1996–1998: Yves St. Amant was a student of my colleague Denis Rancourt at Laval University (Quebec, Canada). Yves re-processed some existing EMG (electromygram) data to experimentally map out the performance of signal processing algorithms as a function of the time duration of data used. His work confirmed existing theory in the field, while pointing out some useful limitations.
- Yves St-Amant, Denis Rancourt and Edward A. Clancy, "Effect of Smoothing Window Length on RMS EMG Amplitude Estimates," Proceedings of the IEEE 22nd Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, IEEE, pp. 93-94, 1996.
- Yves St-Amant, Denis Rancourt and Edward A. Clancy, "Influence of Smoothing Window Length on Electromyogram Amplitude Estimates," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 45, No. 6, pp.795-799, 1998.
1983: I received my B.S. in Electrical Engineering from WPI in 1983. My own Major Qualifying Project group published our work on electrode site selection for control of a powered elbow prosthesis:
- K.T. Cavanaugh, E.A. Clancy, J.A. Natrillo, R.J. Paquette and F.J. Looft, "Optimal Site Selection for Prosthetic Control," IEEE 1983 Frontiers of Engineering and Computing in Health Care, Publishing Services, IEEE, pp. 565-569, 1983.

Major Qualifying Project Interests

General MQP Interests
- Biomedical signal processing
- Biomedical instrumentation, including: design and fabrication of analog sensors, design and fabrication of analog/digital signal conditioning equipment, development of real-time data acquisition and display systems based around the PC
- Engineering applied to broad areas of biomedicine, rehabilitation, health, safety, etc.
Graduate Trajectory MQPs

The goal of a Graduate Trajectory MQP is to provide an elite undergraduate research opportunity leading to a journal paper published in the scientific literature. A journal paper is typically 20-30 pages (double spaced) in duration, demanding exceptional writing quality. For students with an interest in the better graduate schools, listing a "submitted" journal paper on your application (submitted, of course, to a respected journal!) can very well be a distinguishing factor. Students planning on going into industry can also benefit from this experience.
Interested students should consider these projects carefully, and be sure that a research-oriented project (i.e., a project that provides less overall design opportunity than a typical MQP, but increased research opportunity) is in their best interest. If appropriate, students may discuss forming their own project teams.
A typical plan (which is negotiable) is for these projects to complete by the end of B-term. The goal would be to have a submitted journal paper prior to Christmas break (and in-time to include on any graduate school applications, if applicable).

"Adaptive Whitening in Electromyogram Amplitude Estimation," by Prakash, Salini and Tranquilli (2003): For example, this project successfully resulted in one published conference abstract and one published journal paper:
- John A. Tranquilli, Christian A. Salini, Punit Prakash, Donald R. Brown and Edward A. Clancy, "Optimal Electromyogram Amplitude Estimation Algorithm for Epoch-Based Applications," Proceedings of the Fifteenth Congress of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology, (ISBN # 0-87270-136-0) Boston, MA, pp. 69, June 18-21, 2004.
- Punit Prakash, Christian A. Salini, John A. Tranquilli, Donald R. Brown and Edward A. Clancy, "Adaptive Whitening in Electromyogram Amplitude Estimation for Epoch-Based Applications," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 331-334, 2005.

Presentation on Various Bioelectrical and Biomedical Technologies

I have an introductory presentation on biomedical/bioelectric technologies that I have presented to various audiences over the years. The presentation describes a select set of areas (i.e. the areas are not meant to be comprehensive) and includes some interesting videos. A PowerPoint version of that presentation is provided here, along with the various videos. Some of the videos will launch from within PowerPoint (if the PowerPoint file and the videos are downloaded to the same file directory), but others need to be initiated directly. Some videos/photos are copyright their respective owners.