A New Flexible Sensor Patch for Estimating Blood Flow Volume and Pressure based on Continuously Measured Photoplethysmography (PPG) and AI algorithms

Presenter: Paul C.-P. Chao, National Chiao Tung University

Abstract: Learn about the most recent progress on a new, flexible photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor patch that is capable of measuring blood-flow volume (BFV) and blood pressure (BP) with favorable precision. With this flexible patch, BFV and BP are sensed in a non-invasive fashion, and can be continuously collected over more than 24 hours, resulting in long-time monitoring data which are extremely valuable for medical diagnosis. Of particular interest is that the long-time, continuous measurements of BVF are highly important for monitoring the quality of arteriovenous fistulas of hemodialysis patients for prognosis. The current gold standard in clinical practices for BFV measurement is an expensive and bulky BVF monitor, which collects measurements once per month. This monitor needs to be operated by professional, well-trained medical personnel. Instead, the PPG sensor patch that has been developed is a low-cost, small-sized, wearable, and easy-to-use sensor that is capable of ubiquitous measurements of BFV and BP via AI algorithms. Also presented in the talk are new designs of front-end analog circuit, signal processing, and an intelligent calibration method by neural network, which achieve high correlations of R2 = 0.88 and 0.85 for BFV and BP, respectively, as opposed to their current gold-standard monitors.

Speaker bio: Paul C.-P. Chao received his PhD degree from Michigan State University, and then worked for Chrysler Corporation in Detroit before joining the faculty at National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan. He is currently a university distinguished professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at NCTU; and is serving as a distinguished lecturer for IEEE Sensors Council from 2018 to 2020. His research interests focus on sensors, actuators and their readout circuitry. Chao has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers (books, journal papers, conferences, reports) and holds 38 patents.

Chao was the recipient of the 1999 Arch T. Colwell Merit Award from the Society of Automotive Engineering in Detroit; the 2004 Long-Wen Tsai Best Paper Award from the National Society of Machine Theory and Mechanism in Taiwan; the 2005 Best Paper Award from National Society of Engineers, Taiwan; the 2007 Acer Long-Term Award; the 2009 Best Paper Award from the Symposium on Nano-Device Technology; the 2010/2014 Best Paper Award from the Annual ASME Conference on Information Storage and Processing Systems (ISPS); the second-most downloaded paper in IEEE Sensors Journal in 2011; the Best Poster Paper award of IDMC 2015; the prestigious Outstanding Research Award from National Association of Automatic Control in Taiwan in 2015; the prestigious National Innovation Award of Taiwan government 2016; The 2017 Best Industrial Project Award by Ministry of Science and technology, Taiwan government; The 2017 Presidential Outstanding Professor of Engineering in Nation, Taiwan (awarded by the president of the nation in the Presidential House of Taiwan, ROC); Two 2017 Future Technology Awards (Taiwan Oscar Invention Award) from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan Government; The 2018 Outstanding Professor of Electrical Engineering in Nation (Taiwan), National Association of Electrical Engineering, Taiwan; The second National Innovation Award of Taiwan Government in 2018; The Laureate of the MOST Outstanding Researcher Award, Ministry of Science and technology, Taiwan, equivalent to the NSF National Medal of Science in USA; the sole awardee in the area of Automation in the entire nation; The Technical Achievement Award, Sensors Council, IEEE, 2019.

Chao served as University associate vice presidents of NCTU for academic affairs from 2009 to 2010, and of research and development in 2015; the secretary general, IEEE Taipei Section, 2009 to 2010; the founding chair of Taipei chapter for the IEEE Sensor Council; and member-at-large for IEEE Sensors Council from 2012 to 2014. Chao received major IEEE awards for his service: The IEEE Large Section Award from IEEE Head Quarter for the outstanding service as the Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and the IEEE MGA Award from IEEE Region 10 for outstanding service as the Secretary for IEEE Taipei Section, 2009 to 2010. He was the general chair of the 2016 ASME ISPS and IoT conference in Santa Clara, California; and chairs and co-chairs of other major conferences. For editorial services, he is currently topical editors of IEEE Sensors Journal and IEEE IoT Journal. He was the associate editor of ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, and Journal of Circuit, System and Computer; and guest editor of special journal issues. Chao received the award of the 2017 best topical editor, IEEE Sensors Journal. He is a senior member of IEEE and ASME Fellow.

Faculty Host: Prof. Pai-Yen Chen, pychen@uic.edu