ECE News Spring 2012:
Undergraduate Student Profiles
Corey Gough, Patrick Dougherty and Anisha Gorur

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Fourth-year students Corey Gough, Patrick Dougherty and Anisha Gorur designed and built a cognitive assessment device for treating athletes who have suffered concussions.

The “Think Twice” device is a Capstone project under the guidance of professor and computer systems engineer Harry Powell. Student teams are tasked with building a machine for a client. “My team is interested in sports medicine,” said Gough, “so we approached U.Va. physicians Jeffrey Barth, M.D., and Donna Broshek, M.D., about devising a machine that will help them test concussion patients.” The physicians asked for a device that would cause some strain in patients in order to create a baseline assessment that could be referred to during subsequent tests. They also asked that it not require an Internet connection.

In addition to testing memory and reaction, the Think Twice device features distraction light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of different colors, because the inability to filter distractions is a common symptom of concussions. The team believes theirs is the only concussion-testing device on the market with a distraction element. “We’ve now added a feature to measure responses while auditory distractions are taking place,” said Gorur.

Gough credits Powell’s ideas for much of the team’s success. “I don’t think any of us had ever worked on a project of this magnitude,” he said. “We really appreciate professor Powell’s ideas and guidance.”