Computers, frogs and electric circuitry — it's just another day at the laboratory for Michelle Robert.

Robert (graduate-bioengineering) recently did research concerning neural and muscular stimulation for her senior thesis in the Schreyer Honors College. Although she is now a graduate student, she will present her undergraduate research at the 10th annual Undergraduate Exhibition tomorrow and Thursday in the HUB Alumni Hall.

"Basically, we were looking for the optimum neural stimulation to create an action potential," Robert said.

Robert worked with the sciatic nerve in frogs, a bundle of neurons that carry electrical impulses between a leg muscle and the spine.

Instead of merely dissecting the sciatic nerve from a frog and testing it however, Robert developed a mathematical and computer program to simulate what would happen to the nerve when stimulated with different frequencies of electrical impulses.

To do this, Robert modeled the neurons in terms of basic electrical principles involving resistors and capacitors.

"Because you can model the human body as an electric circuit, you can put it into a computer and see what comes out," she said. "You can set up a model that's based on regular circuitry principles."

With the computer model of the nerve, Robert was able to efficiently conduct experiments on the computer model and compare the model's reliability with real experimental data taken from actual amphibians.

"We were basically running virtual experiments on the computer," Robert said.

The model, however, could not exactly mimic actual experimental data, said Roger Gaumond, associate professor of bioengineering and Robert's former adviser for her undergraduate research.

"The model didn't exactly predict what we found," Gaumond said. "There are still some unresolved issues. ... There are still some things we don't know."

Robert was none-the-less optimistic for the further research that could be and is being encouraged by her research.

"It's actually led to other research that's ongoing right now, challenging the traditional literature on how action potentials are spread," she said.

The general implications of neurophysiological research are far-reaching, Robert said, including inner ear implants that allow deaf people to hear and groundbreaking eye-implant research that could give the blind black-and-white vision.

Additionally, "There's a lot of interest today in stimulating muscles," Gaumond said. Stimulating muscles could prevent the unused muscles in wheelchair-bound people from atrophy.

All the research mentioned could be aided by the use of computers, Robert said.

"The more things that you can accomplish with a computer, the better prepared you'll be to interpret the results when you get them," she said. "Computer modeling really does help focus in on the actual research in the lab."

Although she has finished the project relating to this research, Robert now plans to do more research pertaining to the medical world as a graduate student.

"When I was in high school, I wanted to be a doctor, and then I decided I didn't want the lifestyle of a doctor, but I still wanted the help people in a medical way," she said.

Gaumond described Robert as pleasant, hard-working and having many interests outside of her scientific research. "She's remarkably intense when she gets onto something," he said. "She can really drive herself really hard when she's into something that she wants to finish."