Diabetes is a chronic, incurable disease that happens when the body doesn’t produce any or enough insulin, which causes an excess of sugar in the blood. There are two distinct types of diabetes:

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               1) Type 1 - when the body is unable to make insulin 

               2) Type 2 - when the body is not responding to the effects of insulin.

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Insulin is one of the main hormones that regulates the levels of blood sugar and allows the body to use sugar for energy. The sugar that is used for energy is called glucose. If untreated, diabetes can lead to serious health complications, such as various kidney diseases, retinopathy, nerve damage and many more. 

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Right now, there is over 25 million people in the United States that are affected by this disease, and over 400 million people globally. Maintaining a healthy diet and frequent monitoring of blood sugar levels is very helpful when it comes to preventing low blood sugar level occurrences. However, right now, the only way to make sure that one's blood sugar levels are at an acceptable level are through invasive and painful methods, such as finger-pricking with a sharp needle.

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The objective of this senior capstone project is to research, test, verify and implement a non-invasive device that can continuously monitor glucose levels in the blood, without causing pain or trauma to the patient. We plan to do this by using absorption spectroscopy. Developing such a device would be a groundbreaking innovation. At this moment, a non-invasive glucose meter does not exist on the market.