Researchers at N.C. State are leading a nanotechnology project on Centennial Campus to create self-powered medical devices.

The Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies developed the vision and assembled the team of researchers for the project, which includes many different schools doing specific jobs, according to the Veena Misra, director of ASSIST and a professor of computer and electrical engineering at the University.

The project is working to create efficient tools like heart rate and respiratory monitors that are powered by the patients themselves. This would eliminate the need for rechargeable batteries and wires. The devices will also be able to monitor environmental pollutants, like carbon monoxide and ozone, to pinpoint patients' health problems. The project is being funded by an $18.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The University of Virginia will try to make the devices as energy efficient as possible; Pennsylvania State University will create the transistors and other electric material; and Florida International University will create the sensors used to gather data. UNC-Chapel Hill will provide medical guidance, and the University of Michigan will create radios used to send data from the devices to computers or other digital tools for analysis.

"NCSU has the biggest number of people involved, but it is important that everyone in the team from other universities are critical partners," Misra said.

The project can be broken down into two categories of devices: those efficiently harnessing patient energy, like body heat and body motion, and those using this harnessed energy to perform the necessary tasks researchers desire, like health and environmental monitoring.

The first category will be handled mostly by PSU researchers and the second category contains a few entities that will be focused on by several partners. The devices performing the medical tasks range from transistors and human physiological and environmental sensors that work at very low power levels to circuits and systems utilizing that power and managing it very efficiently.

In addition, the research team will work on packaging these components into wearable, comfortable and hassle-free monitoring systems. In the ASSIST center, the devices harnessing power and the devices using that power are co-designed and co-optimized to produce a very low energy, self-powered system, according to Misra.

The reason ASSIST is considered a nanotechnology project instead of strictly a medical one is because of the material that will be used to create the devices. Nanomaterials are used for the tools because they are small enough to access the body's energy through thermoelectric material and they will operate the devices with the smallest amount of energy possible.

These new devices have the ability to revolutionize the medial field by providing wireless and energy efficient devices that can allow doctors to relate patients environments with their health.

Original post:
Researchers create patient-powered devices