Peripheral Neuropathy Autonomous Tester

As part of MIT’s 2.009 Product Engineering Process class, I worked on the design of the Peripheral Neuropathy Autonomous Tester (PNAT), a medical device that enables people with diabetes to monitor the progression of peripheral neuropathy from home. My role spanned user research, system design, and software and mechanical prototyping, with a particular focus on translating human needs into a reliable, deployable physical system.

Overview

In my senior fall, I took MIT’s legendary 2.009: Product Engineering Process class, where 17 of us worked together to bring an idea from concept to prototype in just one semester. In this intensive class, students develop an understanding of product development phases and experience working in teams to design and construct high-quality product prototypes. After weeks of brainstorming and weighing trade-offs, we chose to build the Peripheral Neuropathy Autonomous Tester (PNAT): a device that helps people with diabetes monitor the progression of peripheral neuropathy from home.

User Research

I began on the user research team, conducting interviews with doctors and patients to understand how neuropathy is currently assessed, what information is clinically meaningful, and why existing testing methods are difficult to access outside clinical settings. These conversations shaped our definition of success: not just measurement accuracy, but usability, accessibility, and trust for non-expert users operating the system independently at home.

After the research phase, I transitioned to the modeling team and later became its lead. I was responsible for the XY motion system, a precision mechanism inspired by 3D printer architectures that positions a sensing probe accurately across a two-dimensional plane. I led the mechanical design in Fusion 360, guided multiple prototyping and iteration cycles, and worked closely with the broader team to integrate the mechanism into a cohesive device.

From Research to Prototyping

Learnings

This project represents my first deep experience designing a system that sits at the intersection of human sensing, interpretation, and agency. PNAT raised many of the questions that now motivate my work:

How can sensing systems be designed so people can safely and confidently interact with them?
How do we translate subtle physiological signals into feedback that users and clinicians can understand and trust?
How do physical interfaces shape how people perceive their own bodies and health?

These questions directly inform my interest in human–AI systems, multisensory interfaces, and cognitive augmentation, and they continue to shape the kinds of research problems I want to pursue.

Prototype 1