Week 8: Aidan

 Final week in NYC - lots of progress. Printed two platforms for magnets (a repeat of the flat halbach device, and then the first radial device). Built the flat device again, this time using improved construction techniques based on what happened with the first (used clamps to let epoxy set between the 3rd and 4th sets of magnets). The hypothesis was that with better construction/placement of the magnets, the field should be more strongly aligned in the target direction and get closer to the predicted strength of 87 mT 1cm from the surface. Oddly, the magnetic field measurements are ~30% weaker on the new flat device compared to the old device that had magnets misplaced. However, I had measured the old device and Aldana measured the new device, so it's possible that the difference is due to user-to-user variability, since the measuring tool does not have any guides (you have to eyeball 0.5 cm based on a ruler, and the measuring probe is ~0.2cm thick, so depending on which part you align with the ruler it could be 0.3cm to 0.7cm from the surface of the magnet. Additionally, orientation of the measurement tool matters). I also had the opportunity to observe more surgical cases on Wednesday, which were a deep brain stimulator stage 1 implantation (electrodes), followed by a deep brain stimulator stage 2 (battery) implantation.