Jerry Li’s senior project: Stimulating nerves with ultrasound therapy

Engineering Design Projects (ES 100), the capstone course at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), challenges seniors to engineer a creative solution to a real-world problem.

A Flexible PMUT-Based Ultrasonic Cuff for Beam-Steered Selective Vagus Nerve Neuromodulation 

Jerry Li, S.B. '26, Electrical Engineering

Advisor: Hugh Herr, Evelyn Hu, Guillermo Herrera-Arcos, Jason Hou

• Please give a brief summary of your project.

I built a device that uses ultrasound to stimulate nerves — it's ultra-precise and less invasive than electrical stimulation, and could be useful for treating depression, epilepsy, or neuroprosthetic control.

• What real-world challenge does your project address?

To my knowledge, no one has used microfabricated ultrasound transducers for peripheral nerve stimulation before.

• How did you come up with this idea for your final project?

I have two wonderful mentors: Guillermo pushed me to look into innovations in ultrasound neurostimulation, and also introduced me to Jason, who had just published a paper on microfabricated ultrasound transducers for brain neuromodulation. I was curious if we could adapt Jason's transducers for peripheral nerve stimulation.

• What was the timeline of your project?

I started the microfabrication process back in May 2025, and worked on it over the summer. During the academic year, I've mostly focused on electronics design.

• What part of the project proved the most challenging?

Microfabrication takes a long time, even when you have someone very experienced guiding you through the process!

• What part of the project did you enjoy the most?

Tackling a highly interdisciplinary project and building confidence in my ability to learn on the fly: it spans everything from neuroscience and phased array theory to wireless charging and mechanical prototyping.