As technology advances and an increasing number of devices enter our homes and workplace, humans have become an integral component of cyber-physical systems (CPS). One of the grand challenges of cyber-physical human systems (CPHS) is how to design autonomous systems where human-system collaboration is optimized through improved understanding of human behavior. A new frontier within this landscape is afforded by the advent of low-cost, low-power millimeter-wave radio frequency (RF) transceivers, which can be exploited almost anywhere as part of the Internet-of-Things, smart environments, and personal devices. RF sensors provide a unique, information rich dataset of high-resolution measurements of distance, direction-of-arrival, and micro-Doppler signature in a non-contact, non-intrusive fashion in most weather conditions and in the dark. This CAREER project aims to pave the way for new and innovative RF-enabled CPHS applications in service of society and a better quality-of-life by transforming current fixed-transmission RF sensors into intelligent devices that can autonomously respond to human and environmental dynamics to optimize CPHS performance. Due to the burgeoning commercial sector utilizing radar across a variety of fields, such as transportation, health and human-computer interaction, this project features integrated academic preparation for multi-disciplinary, convergence research at both undergraduate and graduate levels to educate a new generation of engineers with experience in RF sensing, machine learning, signal processing and CPHS applications. Through K-12 outreach activities and recruiting at local historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), this project will enrich and motivate students to study STEM fields, laying the foundations for a diverse and globally competitive STEM workforce for the future.
Abstract
Sevgi Zubeyde Gurbuz
Sevgi Z. Gurbuz (S’01–M’10–SM’17) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering with minor in mechanical engineering and the M.Eng. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, in 2009. From February 2000 to January 2004, she worked as a Radar Signal Processing Research Engineer with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate, Rome, NY, USA. Formerly an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering at TOBB University, Ankara, Turkey and Senior Research Scientist with the TUBITAK Space Technologies Research Institute, Ankara, Turkey, she is currently an Assistant Professor in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her current research interests include RF sensor-enabled cyber-physical human systems (CPHS) for biomedical engineering and remote health monitoring, autonomous vehicles, and human computer interaction (HCI) applications. She has recently received a patent in April 2022 relating to radar-based American Sign Language (ASL) recognition. Dr. Gurbuz is a
recipient of the 2023 NSF CAREER Award, the 2022 American Association of University Women Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine
and Science, the IEEE Harry Rowe Mimno Award for the Best IEEE AES Magazine Paper of 2019, the 2020 SPIE Rising Researcher Award, an EU
Marie Curie Research Fellowship, and the 2010 IEEE Radar Conference Best Student Paper Award. Dr. Gurbuz also serves as a member of the IEEE
Radar Systems Panel and is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions of Aerospace and Electronic Systems (T-AES) and the IEEE Transactions on
Radar Systems (T-RS). She is a member o the Editorial Board for the IET Radar, Sonar, and Navigation (RSN) journal. Dr. Gurbuz is a Senior Member
of the IEEE, and a member of the SPIE and ACM.
Performance Period: 05/01/2023 - 04/30/2028
Institution: University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Sponsor: NSF
Award Number: 2238653