When we feel stressed or anxious, a good hug can often make us feel better. But did you know it’s not just the emotional connection that lifts our spirits? Researchers who study sensory awareness have long known that physical pressure soothes the nervous system, as long as it feels safe and secure. Parents have known it since time immemorial, swaddling their infants to keep them comforted. Weighted blankets or vests to apply pressure, is an assistive technology being used primarily to help autistic patients become less agitated.

Prof. Sundar Krishnamurty

A unique collaboration between the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and sensory awareness expert Tina Champagne, is working to bring the benefits of sensory pressure to a much wider range of people: psychiatric patients, people with ADHD, and even people with sleep disorders. Doctoral student and prize-winning inventor, Brian Mullen, under the guidance of his mentor, Professor Sundar Krishnamurti of the MIE department, has been devising a new tool that is comfortable, can be worn discretely by anyone anywhere, and delivers just the amount of pressure the wearer wants. It’s called the “Portable Hug Vest” and Brian is working with CVIP in developing his company, Therapeutic Systems, to market the vest.

Brian Mullen (left); Chris Leidel

We’ll talk first with Professor Krishnamurti and Brian Mullen and discuss how the idea for the “Hug Vest” came into being, the project’s evolution, and their collaboration with Tina Champagne. Later on, we’ll visit Tina at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts where she is an occupational therapist. We’ll talk about her work and special training in sensory awareness, her partnership with UMass-Amherst, and her hopes for the Hug Vest.

Links/Additional Info

Sundar Krishnamurti
Therapeutic Systems
UMass Amherst Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
http://www.ot-innovations.com
UMass Amherst Technology Innovation Challenge
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
UMass Amherst Dept. of Communication Disorders
UMass Amherst School of Nursing
UMass Amherst School of Management
Cooley Dickinson Hospital
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=5590
http://www.umass.edu/loop/talkingpoints/articles/75370.php
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/541002/

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In this edition of TechCast at UMass we explore OWL, an innovative, interactive, multimedia Online Web-based Learning system that helps students do their homework – and maybe even like it!

It’s a dilemma facing all teachers: how to motivate students to do homework. Getting them to enjoy it is even more of a challenge. For teachers of chemistry, especially those teaching intro courses at the undergraduate level, it might seem like mission impossible. But thousands of teachers are using the OWL homework system. OWL was created by a team of chemistry professors and computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Developed out of a unique collaboration between UMass Amherst’s Department of Chemistry and its Center for Educational Software Development (CESD), OWL encourages students to master their coursework by means of an interactive, self-paced electronic homework system. Some 20,000 students at UMass use OWL each year—many in chemistry, but also in disciplines as varied as physics and art history. OWL is reaching students far beyond the University of Massachusetts. With assistance from the office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP), OWL’s creators have teamed up with educational publisher Cengage Learning, who has licensed the OWL software from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for commercial use. Now some 100,000 chemistry students around the country are using it.

In this episode, we talk with Dave Hart, CESD’s Director and Peter Lillya, Professor of Organic Chemistry at UMass-Amherst about the creation of the OWL system and how they brought their two disciplines together to help students learn chemistry. Later in the podcast we talk with Cengage Learning’s Chemistry Acquisitions Editor, Lisa Lockwood, about how Cengage is using the OWL system in schools across the nation.

Links

OWL: http://www.cesd.umass.edu/CESD/OWL/
Demo to OWL system: http://owl.cengage.com/owl-c/demo/owldemo.cgi
UMass Amherst Center for Educational Software Development (CESD): http://www.cesd.umass.edu/CESD/
UMass Amherst Department of Chemistry: http://www.chem.umass.edu/Department/
UMass Amherst Department of Computer Science: http://www.cs.umass.edu/

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Dr. Parkash, a professor of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tells us about a project to protect people, animals and soil against arsenic contamination. He explains how he’s using genetic engineering to develop new seed strains that will make soils and food crops safer from environmental pollution through a process known as phytoremediation.

By using molecular biology, genetic engineering, physiology and biochemistry to understand how plants tolerate toxic heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium he’s developing a new plant-based technology for cleaning up these toxins in the environment. By blocking certain genes, he can make the plants absorb more toxic heavy metals, like arsenic. But he’s also enhancing genes in food crops that will make them do the opposite: they’ll resist taking up toxins so that the food people eat is safer.

We discuss the relationship between these two projects and how, with CVIP’s help, Dr. Parkash hopes new seed strains using his work can be brought to market.

Related Links:

• Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences – UMass Amherst
• Plant Biology Graduate Program – UMass Amherst
• Phytoremediation from Wikipedia
• World Health Organization (WHO)

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Under PVLSI’s roof, teams of biologists and engineers from UMass Amherst and physicians from Baystate are working together to find and test novel treatments for cancer, neurological and autoimmune disorders, heart disease and other illnesses. They’re also partnering with biomedical companies that are creating products to deliver these new treatments. One promising avenue of research is into something called programmed cell death, or “apoptosis”. In 2006, the PVLSI became home to a new Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research or CEAR.

In this edition of TechCast at UMass we talk with Dr. Larry Schwartz, Professor of Biology at UMass Amherst, CEAR Director, and Science Director of PVLSI about apoptosis and the work of CEAR. We also talk to the Institute’s Executive Director, Dr. Paul Friedmann who exemplifies the clinical side of the PVLSI partnership. He was chairman of surgery at Bay State Medical Center in Springfield for 27 years and has been involved with PVLSI since the concept stage.

Related Links:

• Larry Schwartz, UMass Amherst faculty member, PVLSI Science Director and CEAR Director
• Paul Friedmann, PVLSI Executive Director
• Biomedical Research Models, Inc.

Recent News Releases:

• UMass Amherst news release 1
• UMass Amherst news release 2
• UMass Amherst news release 3

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When microbiologist Susan Leschine set out to study the role of microbes in the carbon cycle, little did she know that she’d find herself on the frontier of green energy production. The Q-microbe—named after the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts where Dr. Leschine discovered it, has properties that may make ethanol production cheaper —and more environmentally friendly than current methods.

The Q-microbe could help free us from dependence on foreign oil. But it could also play an important role in reducing global warming. Using the microbe in ethanol production is in the works through a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Professor Leschine teaches and does her research, and a private company, SunEthanol, also based in Amherst, Massachusetts. Coordinated by CVIP and aided by venture capital from three firms (Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures, and VeraSun Energy), the project hopes to be able to go from the experimental stage to practical application by 2008.

You can also read the original UMass Amherst news release about the Q-microbe.

Find out more about CVIP by exploring the website at http://www.umass.edu/research/cvip/. You can also e-mail cvip or call (413) 545-3606.

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