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BodSquad at UCI’s Winter Engineering Design Review

Image by Joanne Ly.

Irvine – March 15, 2019 – BodSquad in collaboration with Aesthetics Biomedical presented a physical prototype at the annual Winter Engineering Design Review.
This annual event was held inside the UCI Student Center and was a second chance for engineering seniors to display their projects.

With over 120 student teams participating, the event was filled with various projects ranging from drones to wearable technology. Each team presented their research and some displayed their new prototypes. The BodSquad team showcased their promising new prototype, which gave light to the idea of fully automated thermal treating body contouring device. Many attendees of the event were stunned by BodSquad’s prototype and noted they were excited to see the project develop.

The BodSquad team would like to thank you everyone who came out to support and are excited to participate in the upcoming Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Symposium on May 18th, 2019.

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BodSquad at UCI’s Fall Engineering Design Review

Image by mentor William Tang.

Irvine – December 7, 2018 – BodSquad in collaboration with Aesthetics Biomedical presented the company’s device design today at UCI’s annual Fall Engineering Design Review, for a new generation of thermal treatment body contouring devices. This device would potentially be the first of its kind as it would automate body contouring sessions and treat multiple body parts simultaneously.

The Fall Engineering Design Review, hosted by the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering, was held at outdoors at UC Irvine’s Engineering Gateway and was the first senior design showcase for over 120 engineering teams. Participating teams began working on their projects in November, so many teams were still in the initial research and design phase. Members of the UC Irvine community were encouraged to attend and learn more about the projects that students in the engineering program were working on.

The BodSquad team is currently continuing to conduct research and build on the prototype design while purchasing necessary materials for prototype building and testing. The BodSquad prototype is to undergo a second quarterly design review under the BioENGINE program at UCI in the Winter.


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How Does Thermal Body Contouring Work?

Adipose tissue, or fat tissue, is made up of adipocytes (fat cells) that contain cytosolic triglycerides. When their triglyceride concentration is increased, adipocytes can swell dramatically, leading to unwanted excess adipose tissue that can be aesthetically dissatisfying. Eliminating the unwanted adipose tissue in a noninvasive manner has resulted in devices that utilize high-intensity focused ultrasound, low-level lasers, or radio frequency.

For our device, we plan to use radio frequency (RF), which has the ability to reduce the thickness of fat through an electrical current that is quickly alternating. This current increases molecular collisions, generating heat that induces apoptosis, or programmed cell death. It’s important to note that there are no significant effects to surrounding structures, such as skin and muscles.

Once apoptosis occurs, it causes the cell membrane to denature and contained lipids and other materials are released. These materials are considered to be waste by the body and are naturally removed. By maintaining adipocytes at a specific temperature, apoptosis can be induced in several adipocytes. The death of these adipocytes reduces the amount of fat originally there.

References

Boisnic, S., Divaris, M., Nelson, A. A., Gharavi, N. M., & Lask, G. P. (2014). A clinical and biological evaluation of a novel, noninvasive radiofrequency device for the long-term reduction of adipose tissue. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine,46(2), 94-103. doi:10.1002/lsm.22223

Choi, S., Kim, Y., Kim, S., Lee, W., Chang, S., Lee, M., . . . Won, C. (2018). Improvement in abdominal and flank contouring by a novel adipocyte-selective non-contact radiofrequency device. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine,50(7), 738-744. doi:10.1002/lsm.22808

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Our Beginnings

Image by Jamie Le.

The engineers behind BodSquad came together for the first time on October 21st, 2018. Nervous and yet excited at the same time, these six engineers met and began the very first brainstorming session of the year.

The energy in the room was bouncing off the walls. There were many amazing ideas and design concepts that were exchanged during this meeting alone. The enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication of these six engineers was what made the BodSquad device come to life.

We hope that you will enjoy our device as much as we loved developing it.

Learn more about our amazing team here!