Behind many scientific discoveries are engineers designing the systems that make research possible.
This summer, Keegan Reiss ’28, an electrical engineering student at Loyola Marymount University Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering, spent six weeks working alongside Barbara Marino, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, to improve the technology behind a closed-loop temperature control and monitoring system used to study how marine mussels respond to environmental change.
Led by Marino, the project is part of Seaver College’s summer research community, where undergraduate students are guided by faculty mentors to conduct hands-on research.
Reiss worked with three other Seaver students to update a custom-built monitoring system within an aquatic tank that uses sensors, microcontrollers, and a Raspberry Pi-based control system to regulate water temperature and monitor mussel behavior.
The tank monitoring system, which was originally funded through a Seaver College Interdisciplinary Grant in 2023, is used by LMU faculty and student researchers in biology, chemistry, and environmental science to monitor water temperature and mussel shell gaping during laboratory experiments.
“The goal of this project was to improve the tools LMU researchers use to study how intertidal mussels respond to environmental stress, particularly changes in temperature,” Reiss said.
Marine mussels help filter water, provide habitat for other marine organisms, and can serve as indicators of environmental health.
“By developing more accurate and reliable sensors, LMU researchers can collect higher-quality data and gain a better understanding of how mussels respond to changing conditions,” Reiss said. “This information can help scientists predict how coastal ecosystems may be affected by climate change and other environmental challenges in the future.”
Reiss’s work focused on improving the hardware and sensors used to collect data from the monitoring platform.
“I evaluated Hall effect sensors for measuring mussel shell gaping, built sensor assemblies, collected calibration data, and analyzed the relationship between sensor voltage and shell gape distance,” Reiss said.
The summer research experience gave Reiss a new appreciation for the amount of work required behind the scenes to collect reliable scientific data. “Before this experience, I assumed that once a sensor was connected, it would immediately provide useful measurements,” Reiss said. “Instead, I learned that researchers spend a significant amount of time testing equipment, troubleshooting problems, calibrating sensors, and verifying that the data is accurate.”
Reiss found that even small changes in sensor placement or hardware design can affect the results. “This taught me that research is often a process of trial and error, where improvements come from repeated testing and analysis,” he said.
For Reiss, one of the most rewarding aspects of the summer was seeing classroom concepts applied to a real-world research project that supports scientists across multiple disciplines at LMU.
“I gained hands-on experience with sensors, microcontrollers, hardware design, calibration, and data analysis while contributing to a research project with practical applications,” Reiss said.
One of his favorite memories from the summer was working in the lab with his research partners and “celebrating the moments when a sensor, circuit, or piece of code finally worked.”