ECE Professor Receives NSF Grant to Develop Sensor

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Honggang Wang (PI), together with his collaborators Dr. Yong Kim (co-PI from Bioengineering Department), Dr. Indic Premananda (PI from the University of Massachusetts Medical School) and Dr. David Paydarfar (co-PI from University of Massachusetts Medical School)  received a new National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant to develop a biosensor system with wireless network for the remote detection and anticipation of life threatening events in infants. The award titled "SCH: EXP: Collaborative Research: Design of a wearable biosensor system with wireless network for the remote detection of life threatening events in neonates" was awarded by the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) program of NSF and is for three years from September 2014 throughAugust 2017. The total award amount is $656K. This is a joint project between UMass Dartmouth ($360K) and the UMass Medical School ($296K). 

The primary objective of this proposed research is to explore whether a dedicated compact device with wearable biosensors along with wireless networks can be built for the detection and anticipation of life threatening events in infants in both Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) and home environments. The proposed approaches in the project can eventually lead to a medical device for the remote detection of life threatening events in infants and also provide guidelines for the design of wearable wireless biosensor systems for healthcare monitoring applications in general.

Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 2009. In 2009, he joined the ECE department as an assistant professor.