BEGIN:VCALENDAR CALSCALE:GREGORIAN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Drupal iCal API//EN X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU DTSTART:20070311T020000 TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU DTSTART:20071104T020000 TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SEQUENCE:1 X-APPLE-TRAVEL-ADVISORY-BEHAVIOR:AUTOMATIC UID:236901 DTSTAMP:20260601T150824Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260622T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260622T130000 URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.wpi.edu/news/calendar/events/bme-phd-defense-ge-zh u-physics-informed-arterial-tonometry-noninvasive-continuous-blood-pressur e SUMMARY:BME PhD Defense: Ge Zhu: "Physics-Informed Arterial Tonometry for N oninvasive Continuous Blood Pressure Monitoring and Arterial Stiffness Est imation” LOCATION:United States DESCRIPTION:\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\nPhD Dissertation Defense \n"Physics -Informed Arterial Tonometry for Noninvasive Continuous Blood Pressure Mon itoring and Arterial Stiffness Estimation”\nGe Zhu\n\nAbstract: The increa sing demand for accurate, continuous, and noninvasive arterial blood press ure (BP) monitoring has motivated the research presented in this dissertat ion. Continuous BP waveform acquisition provides critical insight into car diovascular dynamics, autonomic regulation, arterial biomechanics, and hem odynamic responses under both resting and dynamic physiological conditions . Despite significant advances in wearable sensing technologies, existing noninvasive BP monitoring approaches remain limited by frequent calibratio n requirements, susceptibility to motion artifacts, reduced accuracy durin g rapid hemodynamic changes, and limited physiological interpretability.\n To address these challenges, this dissertation investigates a physics-base d framework for continuous noninvasive BP monitoring centered on arterial tonometry. The superficial temporal artery (STA) was selected as the prima ry measurement site due to its favorable anatomical characteristics, inclu ding shallow depth, underlying bony support, and accessibility for long-te rm sensing. Building upon these advantages, a novel sensing modality terme d superficial temporal arterial tonometry (STAT) was developed. STAT incor porates a biomechanics-informed transfer function that relates externally measured arterial deformation to intraluminal blood pressure. A custom-eng ineered tonometry device, integrated with dedicated signal acquisition and processing hardware, was designed to enable continuous BP waveform monito ring while reducing calibration dependency and improving measurement stabi lity.\nTo further improve physiological fidelity and enable patient-specif ic modeling, a multimodal sensing framework combining ultrasound shear wav e elastography (SWE) and arterial tonometry was developed. This integrated system enables simultaneous acquisition of arterial stiffness and pulse w aveforms, providing subject-specific biomechanical parameters for enhanced BP estimation. To support controlled evaluation of the proposed methods, a programmable closed-loop pulsatile flow phantom platform was also develo ped. The platform reproduces physiologically relevant hemodynamic conditio ns through tunable arterial stiffness, pulse pressure, heart rate, and wav eform morphology, while maintaining compatibility with clinical-grade arte rial line measurements for validation against ground-truth intraluminal pr essure.\nIn addition, this dissertation introduces a physics-informed neur al network (PINN) framework for estimating patient-specific arterial stiff ness directly from tonometry-derived pulse waveforms. By embedding biomech anical constraints within the learning process, the proposed PINN improves both interpretability and generalizability relative to purely data-driven approaches. This capability extends tonometry beyond BP estimation alone, enabling extraction of physiologically meaningful cardiovascular biomarke rs from wearable-compatible measurements.\nThe performance of the STAT sys tem was evaluated in a human pilot study involving ten participants across twenty-nine experimental sessions, each consisting of thirty minutes of c ontinuous monitoring during both resting conditions and isometric handgrip exercise. STAT-derived BP waveforms were collected concurrently with meas urements from the Finapres Finometer, serving as the reference standard fo r continuous noninvasive BP monitoring, and were additionally compared aga inst a widely used cuffless BP estimation approach based on pulse transit time (PTT). The proposed STAT system achieved a mean absolute difference o f 4.8 ± 2.2 mmHg under resting conditions and 6.5 ± 3.4 mmHg during dynami c conditions, demonstrating improved capability for tracking rapid BP fluc tuations compared with optical based-based cuffless BP monitoring methods. \nCollectively, this dissertation establishes a comprehensive framework fo r continuous noninvasive cardiovascular monitoring through the integration of biomechanics-based arterial tonometry, multimodal elastography sensing , physiologically realistic benchtop validation, and physics-informed mach ine learning. The contributions presented herein advance the development o f personalized, calibration-light, and wearable BP monitoring technologies while providing new opportunities for physiologically interpretable cardi ovascular assessment and precision health applications.\n For a zoom link, please email kharrison@wpi.edu\n\n\n\nDissertation Advisor:\nCommittee Ch air:\n\n\n\nYihao Zheng, PhD\nAssistant Professor\nMechanical Engineering\ nWorcester Polytechnic Institute\n\n\n\nHaichong “Kai” Zhang, PhD\nAssocia te Professor\nBiomedical Engineering\nWorcester Polytechnic Institute\n\n\ n\nDefense Committee:\n\n\n\n\n\nTed Clancy, PhD\nProfessor\nElectrical \& Computer Engineering\nWorcester Polytechnic Institute\n\n\nBenjamin Nephe w, PhD\nAssistant Professor\nBiology \& Biotechnology\nWorcester Polytechn ic Institute\n\n\nAndy McKinley, PhD\nBiomedical Engineer\n\nAir Force Res earch Laboratory\n\n\n\n\n END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR