Joel Holland

• BEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Implant biocompatibility: Creating an automated system to determine the optical degradation of genetically enhanced bionic pacemakers for epilepsy

CANDO (www.cando.ac.uk) is a £10 million project to develop a new type of pacemaker to treat epilepsy. It involves genetically engineering light sensitivity into the target brain tissue and then inserting optoelectronic probes to perform closed loop control methodologies. The biological aspects of the project are being developed in the Newcastle medical school, whereas the engineering is a collaboration between Newcastle EEE, Imperial and UCL.

The aim of this internship is to develop a new degradation test rig to check the long term durability of the probes in aqueous (brain-like) conditions. This will support and speed-up ongoing efforts considerably – allowing automation of the key aspects of the study.

The secondary aim is to allow talented undergraduate students to experience the excitement of large flagship projects such as CANDO to help them determine whether or not to pursue research as further study.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Patrick Degenaar