Wearable technology is transforming the way humans perceive, interpret, and interact with their surroundings. With rapid progress in hardware design, smart materials, digital fabrication, data representation, and context-aware algorithms, wearable systems have evolved into intelligent and adaptive companions in everyday life. This studio focuses on human-centred intelligent wearable technologies for healthcare applications, exploring how design, sensing, and computation can converge to empower innovative medical care. Through a combination of research, prototyping, and experiential learning, students will investigate how wearable devices can monitor, assist, and enhance human wellbeing across clinical and personal health contexts.

Problem statement:

This project aims to design and prototype a cuffless blood pressure monitoring wearable to support remote patient care in Alexandra Hospital’s smart ward environment. The students will consider exploring the following solutions:

• Multimodal sensing: fuse multiple psychological signals, such as seismocardiography (SCG) or photoplethysmography (PPG), to predict the blood pressure.
• Human-centred fabrication: soft, skin-friendly wearable band built with flexible PCB and compliant materials for prolonged wear.
• Data processing: onboard signal acquisition, preprocessing, machine-learning-based algorithms, and wireless streaming to a remote monitoring dashboard.
• Validations: balance clinical accuracy with patient comfort and usability in a smart-ward environment.

Find out more about Alexandra Hospital's virtual healthcare solution here:

https://www.ah.com.sg/about-ah/redesigning-healthcare

Project partner:

• Alexandra Hospital

Project supervisors:

• Dr Cai Shaoyu (shao.cai@nus.edu.sg)
• Ms Erin Ng Xin Le (erin.ngxinle@nus.edu.sg)

Studio timeslot in Semester 2 AY2025/2026:

• Wednesday 9 am to 12 pm