Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, declared in March of 2020, there have been many lifestyle changes which have likely influenced tobacco smoking behavior. Such lifestyle changes include lockdowns, stay at home orders, reduction in social cues related to smoking, increased stress, and boredom among other things. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey which looked into these behaviors, primarily perceived risk to COVID-19, and determined if there is an association between perceived risk and education level/race. Education level is a proxy for income and material resources, therefore making it more likely that people with lower levels of education have fewer resources and higher perceived risk to negative effects of COVID-19. Additionally, people of color are often marginalized in the medical community along with being the target of heavy advertising by tobacco companies which have likely impacted risk to COVID-19 as well.

In nature, some animals have an exoskeleton that provides protection, strength, and stability to the organism, but in engineering, an exoskeleton refers to a device that augments or aids human ability. Since the 1890s, engineers have been designing exoskeletal devices, and conducting research into the possible uses of such devices. These bio-inspired mechanisms do not necessarily relate to a robotic device, though since the 1900s, robotic principles have been applied to the design of exoskeletons making their development a subfield in robotic research. There are different multiple types of exoskeletons that target different areas of the human body, and the targeted area depends on the need of the device. Usually, the devices are developed for medical or military usage; for this project, the focus is on medical development of an automated elbow joint to assist in rehabilitation. This project is being developed for therapeutic purposes in conjunction between Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic. Because of the nature of this project, I am responsible for the development of a lightweight brace that could be applied to the elbow joint that was designed by Dr. Kevin Hollander. In this project, my research centered on the use of the Wilmer orthosis brace design, and its possible application to the exoskeleton elbow being developed for Mayo Clinic. This brace is a lightweight solution that provides extra comfort to the user.

The creative project was to create a working prototype kit that can teach multiple lessons of the curriculum that the schools or individual families could purchase. The curriculum would be centered on the engineering and science curriculum that is introduced from fourth to sixth grade classes. By creating an interactive kit with curriculum that the students could individualize and use for multiple lessons, the goal is to get them more engaged in the material. The project would consist of a week-long project kit that will introduce different engineering topics for three to four days of the week with mini projects and a final project that pieces together the topics they learned. The biggest take away from the project was how to best get user feedback and fast track the IRB process. The IRB process for a project focusing on minors and teachers will cause some catches in the process. Included is a discussion on the IRB process for a project like this and how to best go through or avoid IRB to ensure the project can progress, while still gathering valuable information.