REU Site: Wireless Health Research and Education

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract: REU Site: Wireless Health Research and Education The Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) Site for Wireless Health Research and Education addresses the problem of how to enable low-cost monitoring of patients in the community to ensure the effectiveness of prescribed therapies. Consider the example of physical rehabilitation. Exercises performed under the supervision of a physical therapist will be done properly. But once the patient goes home, there is no assurance that the exercises necessary for recovery are done properly, or at all. With modern information technology such as smart phones and radio-capable sensors, it is now possible to deploy systems that are easy for patients to use that provide such monitoring. Together with processing of the data the sensors produce, meaningful feedback can be provided to both the patients and their caregivers on how well they are doing the exercises, and whether they can progress to the next set. This promises both better care and lower cost in providing it. This is especially important with the aging of the population, and the need for additional assistance in achieving independent living for as long as possible. Students will work on developing new technologies for such applications during their summer research. Some of the projects initiated will then be used as the jumping off point for undergraduate and graduate courses in the following year for many more students to develop them further while also learning about this emerging field of wireless health. Thus, the research and educational components are tightly coupled, resulting in training of many engineers to support the important societal goal of improved and lower cost healthcare. This Site will impact both scientific and educational research communities. The intellectual focus of this proposal is on the development of wireless health experimental equipment and procedures with the goal of enabling large-scale deployments in the community for applications including physical rehabilitation, monitoring of chronic conditions, sports training and promotion of wellness (e.g., through exercise). Presently, monitoring methods are either costly or require elaborate calibration; our focus is on robust procedures that are tolerant of equipment misuse. To this end, tools and procedures produced in the summers will be further extended in regular courses, including senior design, to harden the designs through exposure to larger populations. In this way a much larger of group of undergraduate students will participate in research, with tools that are refreshed in each academic year. This research will have multiple benefits: increasing students' skills, knowledge base, and preparation for future study; and contributing to research breakthroughs with scientific, medical, and social relevance. The main objective of this Site is to provide high quality research experiences and professional development to undergraduates, especially women and underrepresented students. Our recruitment efforts will focus on identifying students from other institutions, particularly those that may not have access to research opportunities, to participate in the program. With carefully designed research projects, participating undergraduates become actively involved in the research of the Wireless Health Institute, gaining a first-hand experience of life as a graduate student. This experience (balancing research, professional development, and networking activities) benefits the undergraduate scholars but also provides value to participating graduate student and faculty mentors, and the broader research communities. Moreover, the tools and procedures developed will each year support 50 undergraduates per year in pursuing research through regularly scheduled senior design courses. Finally, students in other summer research programs, particularly from community colleges, participate in our scaffolding designed to enhance progress to research.