Electro-Bionic Energy System

Is it possible to create an electro-bionic energy system that could allow central wireless power transmission to a remote body sensor network, or wearable devices through skin as a potential charge carrier? Perhaps, the question would not have poked me until a mind ingrained conversation with Dr. Ivan Lee from College of Information and Computer Science at University of Massachusetts, Amherst during IEEE BSN’19 conference. Before hoping into this thought, I was wandering at the intersection of human body and electronics to build an RF near-field epidermal decoder for transducing in-vivo biofluid phenomena and associated limb hemodynamics as a part of my graduate research under Dr.

Kim Cluff at Wichita State University.

The work itself has already paved a first-of-its-kind, a point-of-care device that has demonstrated its capability of detecting hemodynamics from central and peripheral vasculatures through leveraging the noninvasive electromagnetic interaction of biological tissues. However, none of my research questions were addressing the importance of power consumption of the wearable devices for long lasting performance as well as the possibilities of energizing the medical implants wirelessly.

Learning about Dr. Lee’s works on battery less wearables, I envisioned something that would lead human towards a giant technological leap where wearable device will complement life from its neonatal stage to death- perhaps.

A possible symbiosis between human and electronics. Realizing the translational need of Dr. Lee’s research and a possible extension of my career interest on wearable electronics to tangibly impact mankind, I have made my mind to pursue PhD in ECE with a research focus on sensing and embedded systems at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified

Proficient in: Electronic Engineering

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

As engineers, if we could develop a batteryless skin patch sensor that can tell the vitals of life and predict the risk of diseases within an affordable cost, then we would redefine the medical world with new possibilities and hope.

Following the footsteps of my father, I initially chose to pursue mechanical engineering as a career but my passion for electronics impacted me in ways that continue to show up in my work today, particularly in my researches. The questions I try to answer through my researches are evoked from my innate curiosity towards understanding the source of living life and fusing electronics to prevent the progression of diseases. It stems from my high school experience of seeing my beloved mother in ICU suffering from cardiac failure due to renal malfunction. I can remember, sitting in fear, looking at the waveforms in the sophisticated clinical devices and thinking, “How did these machine can tell about the dynamics of human body?” “Will they save my mother?” Today, this curiosity eventually evolved and translated into the researches I have done so far. A device could be an early predictor of an ailment, hence, paved the possibilities to cure it before the critical condition.

After building a diverse background both in mechanical and biomedical engineering, I found myself applying my knowledge of fluid mechanics, biomechanics, analog and digital electronics, bioelectromagnetism, and computational science to solve the challenging-albeit tantalizing universe of health care technologies. I do not believe in miracle or coincidence in science. I spend most of my time to have a solid understanding on “How things work?” My current work on developing readout circuit for an RF resonator based patch sensor in wearable form factor was a difficult problem. Though traditional instrumentation for similar technology involves benchtop equipment that generates major obstacle in point-of-care diagnosis. Through appropriate understanding of the system architecture of those obtrusive device, I was finally able to develop one that has the huge possibility to efficiently detect important biofluid phenomena in a wearable form factor.

I have an ideology that failure is an efficient way to learn, resulting in hypotheses that eventually lead to the inception of a pragmatic solution. This notion has helped to develop confidence in my work and put in solid foundation to convey my ideas to the scientific community with clarity and lucidity through my publications including a journal based on my current research in the prestigious IEEE Transaction of Biomedical Circuits and Systems (impact factor 4.29, accepted for revisions).Today, science has introduced unprecedented flexibility in the brittle silicon wafer to conform to the dynamic surface of the skin. We have already developed a sophisticated miniaturized system to predict health condition. However, still we are struggling to integrate clinical fidelity in these products due to aliased signal, vulnerability to movement artifact, limited sampling rate, and access to fewer health information- just to mention a few. It’s a riddle and we are yet to absolutely bridging the gap between complex physiology and signal transduction through electronics.

During the doctoral application process, I decided to switch gear from Biomedical Engineering and pursue program that matches more with my evolving passions to address the challenges in the wearable medical electronics. One of my PhD goals will be exploring the possibility of ultra-low powered wireless system-on-chip coupled with dedicated analog front end and DSP unit with advance Machine Learning features to harness accurate 12 lead ECG, limb hemodynamics, cuffless blood pressure, and ventricular stroke volume measurement under any environmental condition. To supplement my interest, I believe the courses, in particular, VLSI design, embedded system design, antenna theory and design, analog integrated circuit design, nano electronics- just to name a few, offered by the ECE department at UMass Amherst for the specialization in sensing and embedded system will provide me the solid foundation in this pursuit.

In addition, the learning about the collaborative research environment of Dr. Lee’s lab from his student during the IEEE BSN’19 conference has also bolstered my decision to have him as my PhD mentor. Back in my country I was no stranger to hardship. However, despite my setbacks I have always drawn from my passion for impacting mankind through my research as inspiration to overcome these challenges. During my graduation year at the department of Biomedical Physics and Technology, I developed a 3D printed electronic spirometer for telemedicine in rural areas. Specifically, I was investigating the feasibility of mechanical flow meters for the possible assessment of lungs functionality for the possible diagnosis of bronchial diseases. I wasn’t excited about just having a prototype that could measure different parameters. Rather, I found myself something uncommon apart from the literatures.

In most cases, mechanical flow meters adopt classical fluid mechanics and Bernoulli’s principle to detect flow rate from differential pressure. However, those theoretical deductions are based on steady flow assumption that doesn’t account the situation like dynamic flow from lungs. Even, in human application, nothing has been reported how to quantify skin friction in respiratory track. So, this discovery got me interested in the need modification of Bernoulli’s equations for unsteady flow and respiratory mechanics to convey clinical integrity in the acquired flow data. To me, the beauty of being an engineer is to learn how to embrace complex problems and visualize them as opportunities for impact. Living away from home, I often dream of hoping to see myself working for my roots.

I want to create a non-profit organization to support research activities in Bangladesh. I realized, our struggle for improving life style will not be completed until we ensure the universal benefits of the technology apart from the local boundary. Since that purpose, I will also be working to create a global community which will be advocating for technological equalization through shared knowledge and activities. I hope my experience in mechanical, biomedical, and electrical will enable me to make my dream come true in near future. Through my work, I would also like to be a role model for the people. And I feel having a career in academia will eventually serve that purpose since it will allow me to expand my ideas and philosophy among students-the future architect of every nation.

Due to the nature of terrestrial life, it is easy to get biased towards the negativities, and setbacks. Instead, I see them as a precursor of joyful moments-an elixir of all frustrations and turn them into elegant responses. During my graduate year at WSU, I was actively engaged with the “Go-Baby-Go” organization where I led my team to customize a toy car for the neural mobility training of physically challenged kids. Under my guidance, our team successfully built a PWM based adaptive speed controller to ensure safety of the kids while driving the car. It was a project that trained me how to interact and work hand-in-hand with different professionals to convey different ideas to general understanding. I believe the takeaway from this experience has also played an important part in my research career where I found myself productive along with a group of smart people to obtain the specific aims of the research.

Always learning, recalibrating, and evolving. This perspective is a fragment of what drove me to transition from mechanical engineering to biomedical engineering and now, towards electrical and electronics engineering. It is empowering for me to see how some of my acquired skills can be utilized in different areas of science. This incited a boldness and thirst to settle up for the PhD in ECE at UMass, Amherst which I believe would be an exciting journey to develop and test hypotheses and ultimately creating devices to influence human life. I sincerely thank the graduate admission committee for the time and effort.