Seminar Series
“Next-Generation Wearable Blood Gas Monitors for Enhanced Patient Monitoring”
Ulkuhan Guler, PhD
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Monday, September 22, 2025
GP1002
12:00pm – 12:50pm
Abstract: The need for reliable monitoring of vital signs has become a key driver in advancing device technologies in modern digital healthcare. Oxygenation and ventilation, essential to assessing a patient's respiratory and metabolic health, hold significant importance beyond respiration alone. Noninvasive monitoring of blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, in particular, offers an alternative to the invasive gold standard methods traditionally used in clinical settings. While recent developments in wearable medical technology have enabled the monitoring of vital respiration parameters such as respiration rate and blood oxygen saturation, these represent only a subset of the critical measures required for comprehensive respiratory and metabolic health care. Blood oxygen and carbon dioxide partial pressures, key indicators of ventilation efficiency and metabolic function, are of great clinical significance and hold the potential to be monitored noninvasively. Noninvasive, wearable monitors for these parameters could revolutionize patient care, reducing dependence on invasive procedures and enabling more freedom for patients outside hospital settings. In this talk, the challenges and opportunities in designing wearable, noninvasive systems to monitor oxygenation and ventilation will be explored. Key technologies driving advancements in this field will be highlighted, and the potential impact of these devices on personalized healthcare will be discussed.
Biography: Ulkuhan Guler is an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Integrated Circuits and Systems (ICAS) Laboratory at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), MA, USA. Currently, she is also holding a position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MA, USA, as a visiting scientist since 2024. Before joining WPI in 2018, Dr. Guler was a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech, GA, USA. She received her B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, her M.E degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, and her Ph.D. degree from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Her research interests lie in the broad area of circuits and systems, and her primary area of interest is analog/mixed-signal integrated circuits. More specifically, she is interested in the circuit design of sensing interfaces, bioelectronics, energy harvesting, wireless power transmission systems, and security for applications in healthcare. Recently, her research interest has focused on determining how electronic interfaces can be engineered along with biosensors to facilitate the creation of wireless wearable sensors that measure physiological parameters in the human body. She is the recipient of the 2022 NSF CAREER award and the 2020 Interstellar Initiative Young Investigator award. She is a senior member of IEEE. She serves as an associate editor for several IEEE journals, including IEEE SSC-L, IEEE TBioCAS, and IEEE TCAS: II. Dr. Guler co-authored three book chapters and holds one issued patent along with six utility patent applications. She also serves as a steering committee member of the IEEE CICC, including roles as TPC co-chair of CICC 2025 and TPC chair of CICC 2026, and a TPC member of the IEEE BioCAS conferences.
For a zoom link please contact Kate Harrison at kharrison@wpi.edu