HCESC Jump ARCHES Summer Interns: Jason Jung

Twelve undergraduate interns are joining the 2022 Jump ARCHES Summer Internship Program, led by HCESC. The internship pairs students up with project teams led by UIUC faculty and OSF Healthcare/UICOMP researchers that have active Jump ARCHES awards. We've asked each intern to tell us a little about themselves. We'd like to introduce you to Jason Jung!

Jason will be working with ECE Assistant Professor Yang Zhao on the Jump ARCHES project A Deep Learning Augmented Point-of-Care Device for Antibody Quantification. The polymerase of RNA viruses is proofreading deficient. Mutations of such viruses pose challenges to the long-lasting effectiveness of vaccines. One approach to ensure the sustained efficacy of the vaccine is to frequently screen the vaccinated individuals for immunity. For example, FDA has issued Emergency Use Authorization of more than 200 rapid diagnostic products for COVID-19, but only a handful of antibody (serological) tests for usage in the patient-care settings. One critical issue identified is the lack of accuracies of these available point-of-care antibody tests due to human errors and lack of quantification. In this project, we will address the unmet need for point-of-care antibody tests with quantifiable and improved accuracies. The goal is to develop a cost-effective serological testing mechanism that minimizes false-positive rate and is ready for scaling up for large-scale screening. The objective of this proposal is to develop a low-cost chiral metamaterial sensor and a machine-learning-enabled detection mechanism that can enhance the sensitivity and quantify the antibody responses. Long-term, the methodology developed in this proposal will be extended with multiplexed results for diagnostic purposes for various pathogen detections, providing valuable and timely information to diagnose other deadly infectious diseases  

Where are you from?

I am from Palatine, IL.

What is your major, and why are you interested in studying and working in your field of study?

I am majoring in Electrical Engineering. I am pursuing a degree in this field because I am interested in signal processing as well as communications.

What are you wanting to gain from your experience?

I want to learn techniques and skills through a bioengineering project and also get an overview of what the research experience is like from my internship.

What kind of work would you like to do in the future?

I want to work on developing hardware and software solutions in healthcare and environmental sustainability efforts.

What other plans do you have for the future?

I plan to pursue a master's degree at the very least.

Do you have any hobbies? Does this activity relate to your studies or influence what you want to do with your future?

I love to cook and run. There really isn't a connection between these hobbies and my career, though.