UTRGV students and a mechanical engineering assistant professor are developing a device that is designed to prevent blood clots in patients after hip and knee surgery.
Ruben Garcia, a UTRGV graduate student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, designed the mechanism in his role as a mechanical engineer on the developing team. After knee or hip surgery, patients have trouble walking and this may cause deep vein thrombosis, which can lead to death. Garcia is designing the project to help prevent the blood clot from occurring.
“The goal is mostly to prevent … deaths,” Garcia said. “So, we are trying to prevent that by making a device that can stimulate blood circulation in the lower leg. This is a really long-term kind of project but I do believe that we’ll have a working model to show off, hopefully, pretty soon.”
Noe Vargas Hernandez, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is a member of the developing team for the Vaquero Boot. Vargas said the idea for the device came from Dr. William Head, a distinguished orthopedic surgeon from Dallas. He said that Head also donated $10,000 to the project.
Head donated $600,000 to establish the Jean Marie Rodriguez-Ayers Scholarship to benefit the inaugural class of students in the School of Medicine, according to an April 2015 UTRGV news release.
“We are working already in prototypes,” Vargas said. “I believe that we will have a really complete prototype to show … in a matter of months, probably in six months. We are in this project because there is a direct impact [on] improving the quality of life of people. But beyond this project, we see this as a learning process that is going to help us with the next project.”
The Vaquero Boot is considered a multidisciplinary project because it combines the collaboration of different departments such as the UTRGV School of Medicine, the Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship and the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
David Barrera, a business and entrepreneurship senior, focuses on marketing the Vaquero Boot project. Barrera said the project got his attention after his professor showed him the list of projects he could be assigned to. He said that participating in the program has helped him network and expand his horizons.
“I’m very thankful for UTRGV for giving me this opportunity to be part of the program,” Barrera said. “I was able to learn a lot and I experienced a lot of things. … I am going to be able to use these experiences in my own projects and my own business ideas.”
