ST: Wearable/Mobile Sensors and Systems

Catalog description

BME 595-ST/ECE 539-ST Wearable/Mobile Sensors and Systems (3 credits) This course explores the design and application of small-size, low-power wearable sensors, with a focus on medical- and health-related uses. Students will begin by learning about sensor technologies and electronic circuits that transduce common physiologic signals, including the electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyogram (EMG), electroencephalogram (EEG), photoplethysmogram (PPG; for pulse oximetry), transcutaneous oxygen measurement, temperature, and inertial measurement units (IMUs). The course then delves into modern system-on-chip (SoC) microcontroller units, which serve as small edge devices equipped with analog-to-digital converters (ADC), processors and integrated wireless connectivity via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Students will study the architecture and programming of these systems. Additionally, the course covers how a secondary BLE receiver on a more powerful device collects sensor data for display, storage and processing; including as part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Key topics in signal processing include online or off-line techniques such as heart rate estimation from ECG/PPG data and EMG-based control of prosthetic devices. Through hands-on labs, students will design, build and program functional sensor systems. Students should have a working knowledge of MATLAB (or Python) and C programming and an undergraduate background in analog circuits and computer engineering. Undergraduate background in digital signal processing and/or wireless signals would be helpful, but not necessary. This special topics course may be repeated for credit if different topics are covered.