Daniela Lo Presti wins the Sensor 2021 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award
di Francesca Zinghini
October 14, 2021 - AND Daniela Lo Presti, research fellow atUnit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation dell 'Università Campus Bio-Medico di Romato win the prize "Best Ph.D. Thesis Award" by Sensors MDPI magazine for designing and developing cutting-edge wearable sensors. A work described in his PhD thesis in Science and Engineering for Man and the Environment (Bioengineering curriculum) entitled "Wearable based on fiber Bragg grating sensors for applications in Smart Healthcare: from design to test" .
Since 2017 Lo Presti has dedicated his studies to wearable systems for non-invasive measurement of vital signs based on fiber optic sensors. The latter is better known in the field of telecommunications but, in recent decades, has found various uses in the medical sector thanks to its small size, high sensitivity and biocompatibility. The systems developed by Lo Presti allow the monitoring of breath frequency and heart rate starting from strain measurements carried out at the rib cage level. In fact, respiratory activity causes variations in the volume of the rib cage which in turn deform the sensors in contact with it, thus allowing monitoring of the respiratory rate. Similarly, cardiac activity, usually monitored via an electrocardiagram, causes micro-vibrations on the rib cage and small deformations on the sensors, which are useful for monitoring the heart rate.
The researcher was also involved in the functional evaluation of these systems to define their performance. Tests were carried out on healthy volunteers, on patients but also on athletes during their training. For example, in sports it is essential to monitor the physiological parameters during the activity to optimize training strategies. Lo Presti turned to archers: with a wearable system based on elastic bands and flexible sensors, he evaluated cardiac activity during the aiming phase of the target, prior to archery, in the moment of greatest tension in which the archer is used to hold the air to be completely still. Precisely in that phase, the non-invasiveness of the sensor made it possible to constantly monitor cardiac activity and evaluate its frequency.
"Thanks to the support and coordination of my PhD supervisor, the prof. Emiliano Schena, Associate of Mechanical and Thermal Measurements UCBM, And dr. Michele Caponero, of the ENEA Research Center in Frascati, I got this recognition from Sensors, one of the leading scientific journals for sensors and measurements - said Lo Presti. Creating increasingly high-performance and less invasive sensors will make it possible to increasingly respond to the need to transform the current healthcare delivery model: from a system focused on treatment to an increasingly "smart" system focused on prevention. In this sense, a reality like that ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, based on the close collaboration between engineers and medical personnel, allows the development of innovative technology at the service of man, personalizing it on the basis of information provided by doctors and increasingly tailored to the patient".
