Charles Tritt, Ph.D.

Associate Professor | Milwaukee School of Engineering

Milwaukee, WI, UNITED STATES

Dr. Tritt is a biomedical engineer with additional expertise in chemical, computer, and electrical engineering.

Education, Licensure and Certification (3)

Ph.D.: Chemical Engineering, Ohio State University 1994

M.S.: Biomedical Engineering, Ohio State University 1986

B.S.: Chemical Engineering, Ohio State University 1982

Biography

Dr. Charles Tritt is an associate professor in the Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering department and has been a faculty member at MSOE since 1990. He primarily teaches in the biomedical engineering program. He began his career as a staff engineer at Proctor and Gamble. He returned to school for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. At MSOE he also has served as the interim biomedical engineering program director. He coordinated MSOE’s 2+2 transfer program with Manipal University in India. He is an ABET program visitor and member of the BME Accreditation Activities Committee (AAC).
He regularly teaches the BME program’s Thermodynamics & Transport Phenomena and Sensors, Actuators, & Interfaces courses. He is interested in the application of generative AI technology to biomedical engineering problems and medical devices. He also has extensive experience in biomedical applications of mass, heat, and momentum transfer (particularly in mathematical modeling of adsorption, ion exchange and permeation processes).”

Areas of Expertise (5)

AI Applications

Computer Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Accomplishments (2)

"Honored Guest" (speaker)

2007 ICAS Convocation Ceremony, Manipal University, Manipal, India

Falk Engineering Education Award

MSOE, 1995

Affiliations (2)

Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) : Member
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) : Member

Event and Speaking Appearances (10)

Cultivating Critical Thinking through Generative AI use in a First Programming Course

MSOE KEEN CLO grant Faculty Learning Together session (April 2024)

Cultivating Critical Thinking through Generative AI Use

MSOE AI Ambassador poster session (March 2024)

Chatbots: Friends or Foes

15th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics and Health Law – Porto, Portugal (October 2023)

Integrating UNESCO Bioethics Declaration topics into an Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Curriculum

14th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics and Health Law – Porto, Portugal (March 2022)

Modern and Future Tools for Medical Device Development and Evaluation

Gateway Technical College, EET class (Summer 2020)

Human-Human Interface

DefCon 25, Los Vegas, NV, 2017

Introduction to Arduino Embedded Systems and Their Use with Matlab

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India, 2015

Collaboration Opportunities with MSOE’s Biomedical Engineering Program

CTS Thursday Noon Conference, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2015

Education in the US – An Overview

Department Of Humanities & Management, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India, 2014

Education in the US – An Overview

Department Of Humanities & Management, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India, 2015

Selected Publications (4)

Board 19: Work in Progress: Spicing Up Instruction of Professional Topics in Biomedical Engineering

ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

LaMack, J.A., Imas, O., Larry Fennigkoh, P.E., Tritt, C.S., Dos Santos, I.

2018 Practical knowledge of topics such as FDA and international regulatory compliance, standards for medical devices, quality control in medical device manufacturing, and healthcare economics, are among the distinguishing skills of many biomedical engineers. Furthermore, industry highly values familiarity with these topics in BME undergraduates. However, it is challenging to instruct students on these inherently dry topics, particularly in the absence of practical applications. Previous approaches toward teaching these topics in our curriculum mainly involved lectures scattered throughout our extended capstone design course series. While the coupling between presentation of these topics and students’ design projects was often successful, student feedback was mixed in response to this approach. Students sometimes reported that presentations covering these topics were not timely (different design projects progress at different paces and address the topics at different points in time), that they were a distraction from the main goal of conducting design work in the laboratory, or that they were simply boring.

Design of Artificial Red Blood Cells using Polymeric Hydrogel Microcapsules: Hydrogel Stability Improvement and Polymer Selection

The International Journal of Artificial Organs

Zhang, W., Bissen, M.J., Savela, E.S., Clausen, J.N., Fredricks, S.J., Guo, X., Paquin, Z.R., Dohn, R.P., Pavelich, I.J., Polovchak, A.L., Wedemeyer, M.J.

2016 It was observed that the molecular weight of the cross-linker oligochiotsan had no significant improvement on microcapsule stability. On the other hand, the treatment of pectin-oligochitosan microcapsules with Ca2+ increased the microcapsule stability significantly. Different types of alginate were used; however, no red-blood-cell-shaped microcapsules could be produced, which is likely due to the charge-density difference between deprotonated pectin and alginate polymers.

Novel pectin-based carriers for colonic drug delivery

Pharmaceutical Development and Technology

Zhang, W., Mahuta, K.M., Mikulski, B.A., Harvestine, J.N., Crouse, J.Z., Lee, J.C., Kaltchev, M.G., Tritt, C.S.

2016 Pectin-based hydrogel carriers have been studied and shown to have promising applications for drug delivery to the lower GI tract, especially to the colonic region. However, making sure these hydrogel carriers can pass through the upper GI tract and reach the targeted regions, after oral administration, still remains a challenge to overcome. A solution to this problem is to promote stronger cross-linking interactions within the pectin-based hydrogel network. The combined usage of a divalent cation (Ca2+) and the cationic biopolymer oligochitosan has shown to improve the stability of pectin-based hydrogel systems – suggesting that these two cross-linkers may be used to eventually help improve pectin-based hydrogel systems for colonic drug delivery methods.

Development of a Microscale Red Blood Cell-Shaped Pectin-Oligochitosan Hydrogel System Using an Electrospray-Vibration Method: Preparation and Characterization

Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials

Crouse, J.Z., Mahuta, K.M., Mikulski, B.A., Harvestine, J.N., Guo, X., Lee, J.C., Kaltchev, M.G., Midelfort, K.S., Tritt, C.S., Chen, J., Zhang, W.

2015 The designed hydrogel microcapsule system exhibited a large surface area-to-volume ratio (red blood cell-shaped) and great pH/enzymatic responsiveness. In addition, this system showed the potential for controlled drug delivery and three-dimensional cell culture.