Dr. Kapil Dandekar, Ph.D., along with a multi-disciplinary team of Drexel investigators, was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) initiative. The program's goal is to develop the core system science needed to engineer complex cyber-physical systems. Additionally, the program aims to cultivate a community of researchers who are committed to advancing CPS research and education and to transitioning CPS science and technology into engineering practice. These advances in CPS technology will transform how people interact with engineered systems. Titled "Sensing, Processing, and Actuation of Biomedical Smart Textiles for Deep Venous Thrombosis Prevention," this is a four year project supported with an estimated $1.4 million in funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).
Wearable electronics and computing technology are becoming ubiquitous in everyday life. New commercially available wearable devices such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit, are enabling exciting new application domains, notably in wearable health systems. The prospect of replacing cumbersome medical equipment with unobtrusive body worn devices that can robustly and securely send and receive data for biomedical sensing and actuation for remote treatment, has the potential to be a disruptive innovation.
Whereas the majority of electronic textiles in existence today make use of circuits adhesively integrated onto a host garment, knitting technology at Drexel University enables the creation of garments with seamlessly integrated sensors and actuators. This project will integrate smart fabric sensors and actuators into comfortable garment devices providing unobtrusive prevention options for deep venous thrombosis (DVT), that are not currently possible, particularly in high risk patients. In addition, robust and secure algorithms will process the data from these knit strain sensors, fuse it with other data from the patient's medical history and medical practitioner inputs, and enable actuated treatment remotely.
Please join the department in congratulating Dr. Dandekar and his team on this accomplishment.