Ari Willig

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Ari Willig

Biomedical and Software Engineer

Thanks for checking out my page!

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Currently:

  • Student at Duke University studying biomedical engineering and computer science
  • Manufacturing Engineering Intern at Zimmer Biomet, leveraging orthotics to alleviate pain and
    improve quality of life for people around the world

Previously:

  • Researcher at the Segura Lab studying the formation of neural progenitor cell organelles
  • Research and Development Intern at Skeletal Dynamics designing implantable devices for
    proximal humerus repair
  • Intern at OrthoPro Associates where I assisted in the evaluation, fabrication, and fitting of artificial limbs

Interests:

  • I have been a competitive rock climber for over 8 years and try to enjoy the outdoors any chance I get
  • I've been playing guitar since middle school and was trained mostly in the Spanish Classical style
  • I adore reading and have made my way through almost all of the fantasy recommendations I can find
  • I am extremely active so I try to practice basketball and yoga as much as I can
LinkedIn Resume

Side Projects

Pacemaker Project
Bluetooth Pacemaker
Mercury Modeling
Mercury Project
Lightbox Project
Lightbox
Website
This Website!
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Pacemaker Project

I have always been extremely interested in the mechanics of heart function and how electrical signals contribute to keeping us alive. Building out a pacemaker from scratch taught me how to integrate operational amplifiers, filtering circuitry, C++ programming, and bluetooth communication devices all in one medical device. Testing the pacemaker on ECGs and frog anatomy allowed me to refine the design and eventually create a fully functional pacemaker that induced heartbeats in response to electrical failure of the organ. The pacemaker was also able to send data out to a bluetooth device (my iPhone) and record past measurements.

Pacemaker firing to set correct least time interval Circuitry Bluetooth transmission of pacemaker readings
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Mercury Project

Methylmercury (MeHg) poisoning is a pressing global threat to human health. In past global health crises, methylmercury poisoning outbreaks have taken hundreds of lives and left millions with persistent neurodevelopmental symptoms. The heavy metal is not only lethal in high doses, but can also cause debilitating neurological, cardiovascular, liver, and kidney damage. Along with a team of classmates, I developed a model to monitor the mass flow rates, accumulation, and transformation of methylmercury and its derivatives across both a healthy and unhealthy chronic 60-day dosage period. This model used a simplified version of the most endangered organs and substantial systems of differential equations to reproduce the accumulation of methylmercury across the human body.

Human body mercury accumulation diagram Differential equation modeling Mercury accumulation comparison for each organ in scope
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Lightbox

A lightbox, while not being unbelievably complex, integrates all of the main components of medical device prototyping. A few months back I designed a lightbox in three parts, a CAD model, PCB design and soldering, and firmware integration. Though I have extensive experience in CAD through past internships and courses at Duke University, modeling Bert from Sesame Street was a fun little design and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Designing a PCB from scratch using KiCad and being able to solder electrical components and an Arduino to it was challenging but an amazing learning experience. Finally, integrating software with the arduino allowed me to learn about state machines and see the project come to life. The final product was a lightbox that used firmware to control three LEDs independently, controlling their pulse durations and brightness with potentiometers soldered into the PCB.

PCB schematic PCB schematic Lightbox model
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This Website!

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are extremely versatile programming languages used across the entire internet in a plethora of ways. Teaching myself these languages to build this website from scratch was extremely fun and I now feel very proficient in using these languages together. Using HTML to define and build out the structure for the site, CSS to style it and implement what I had envisioned, and JavaScript to add in functionality and finishing touches resulted in what you are seeing right now!

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Email

ari.willig@duke.edu

© Ari Willig