CAREER: Towards Self-Sustainable Wearable Systems Design for Mobile Health Applications

可穿戴技术通过在非临床环境中对用户进行经济、可靠、连续和数据驱动的监测，有可能改变人类的生活质量。持续监测用户活动和生命体征是令人兴奋的，因为它可以暴露在办公室访问中难以察觉的健康问题。事实上，可穿戴设备已被白宫国家科学技术委员会确定为支持美国人口老龄化的关键技术。尽管可穿戴技术具有令人印象深刻的潜力，但由于用户舒适度、可用性和能源可持续性挑战，其在临床和日常环境中的广泛采用受到限制。本CAREER项目提出通过三个紧密结合的研究目标来解决这些挑战：1)可穿戴设计套件，根据用户、临床医生和应用需求自动设计舒适可用的可穿戴系统；2)通过光、身体运动和热等环境源收集和管理能量的自我可持续可穿戴设备；3)为持续健康监测提供可靠的健康应用程序的算法和方法。这些目标的成功实现将有助于可穿戴设备在改变人类生活质量和医疗保健方面充分发挥其潜力。该项目还将为可穿戴系统以及更广泛的物联网设备的设计提供新的知识和见解。该CAREER项目使可穿戴设备的广泛采用将对公共卫生产生两个重大影响：(i)在自由生活环境中对疾病进行高精度监测和管理；（二）由于减少了对临床就诊的需求，降低了医疗保健费用。这个CAREER项目的综合教育部分将培养一支强大的、多样化的多学科劳动力队伍，以应对未来在计算系统设计和自动化方面的挑战。该项目的主要教育目标之一是改善残疾儿童的科学和数学学习，以增加他们对科技劳动力的参与。该项目还包括一个大使项目，让来自华盛顿社区学院的学生参与招募代表性不足的学生进入华盛顿州立大学（Washington State University）的项目。这个职业发展项目的结果将通过会议出版物、期刊和开源包广泛传播，供社区使用。该项目还将通过外展项目与公众互动，解释研究成果并展示可穿戴系统的好处。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Wearable technology has the potential to transform the quality of human life by enabling cost-effective, reliable, continuous, and data-driven monitoring of users in non-clinical settings. Continuous monitoring of user activities and vital signs is exciting, as it can expose health issues otherwise difficult to perceive in an office visit. Indeed, wearable devices have been identified as a key technology to support the aging United States population by the White House National Science and Technology Council. Despite the impressive potential of wearable technology, its widespread adoption in clinical and everyday settings has been limited due to user comfort, usability, and energy sustainability challenges. This CAREER project proposes to resolve these challenges through three closely integrated research aims: 1) A wearable design kit to automatically design comfortable and usable wearable systems as a function of the user, clinician, and application requirements; 2) self-sustainable wearable devices through energy harvesting and management from ambient sources such as light, body motion, and heat; 3) algorithms and methods to enable reliable health applications for continuous health monitoring. The successful outcome of these objectives will help wearable devices achieve their full potential in transforming the quality of human life and healthcare. The project will also generate new knowledge and insights into the design of wearable systems and, more broadly, Internet of Things devices.The widespread adoption of wearable devices enabled by this CAREER project will have two significant impacts on public health: (i) High-precision monitoring and management of diseases in free-living environments; and (ii) reduction in healthcare costs due to a reduced need for clinical visits. The integrated educational component of this CAREER project will train a strong and diverse multidisciplinary workforce to handle future challenges in computing system design and automation. One of the key educational goals of the project is to improve science and mathematics learning for children with disabilities to increase their participation in the science and technology workforce. The project also includes an ambassador program to involve students from community colleges in Washington to recruit underrepresented students into Washington State University (WSU) programs. Results from this CAREER project will be widely disseminated through publications in conferences, journals, and open-source packages for use by the community. The project will also engage with the public through outreach programs that explain research outcomes and showcase the benefits of wearable systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.