An NCSU student is bringing pig hearts back to life. No, it’s not a description of a scene from the new “Terminator” movie. Andrew Richards, graduate student in mechanical engineering, actually has designed a machine that gets defunct swine tickers ticking again. His machine is not as crazy as it first seems.

“It basically pumps a solution through the valves of the heart in a life-like way,” Richards says of the Dynamic Heart System, which is helping to improve heart surgery tools and techniques by providing a “living” heart for research. The pig heart is suspended between a series of pumps and valves that are connected to a computer.

Pig hearts are anatomically similar to human hearts, and most prototypes for cardiac surgery tools are developed using live animals for testing. Using hearts from deceased pigs saves many live pigs the fate of being victims of research in addition to saving money. “You can easily spend $2,500 per animal when using live animals,” says project director Dr. Greg Buckner, “With the Dynamic Heart System, we buy hearts from the meat processor for about $5, and we have the added benefit of being able to precisely control heart rate and blood pressure.”

Reviving pig hearts has not always been Richards’ plan. Richards grew up in the small town of Irmo, South Carolina, and received his undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Clemson University. “I got a computer engineering job doing mostly programming stuff out of college,” he says. “It wasn’t a bad job, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do every day, so I decided to go to grad school.”

Richards first learned of N. C. State because his brother came here for undergraduate work. Richards was admitted into the biomedical engineering graduate program, and during his Masters’ work, he first stumbled on the idea of the Dynamic Heart System.

“It just kind of makes sense to have a system like this,” asserts Richards. As for his role in developing the heart: “I basically just started from scratch and built the whole thing,” he says.

Now working on his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, Richards develops prototypes of machines like the Dynamic Heart that can aid in biomedical research. He plans to continue developing medical devices for his career.

The potential of this machine is not lost on students here at N.C. State. “It is interesting how this heart from a dead pig is saving live pigs and can save people too,” says Parks and Rec major Michael Green. “Richards’ work is an amazing achievement.”