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Our most significant lecture of the year honors Paris Kanellakis, a distinguished computer scientist who was an esteemed and beloved member of Brown CS. Paris joined us in 1981 and became a full professor in 1990. His research area was theoretical computer science, with an emphasis on the principles of database systems, logic in computer science, the principles of distributed computing, and combinatorial optimization.

“Monitoring Health and Diseases Using Radio Signals and Machine Learning”
Dina Katabi, MIT
4 PM on April 20 in CIT 368

Abstract

In this talk, I will present sensing technologies that track people’s vital signs, movements, and sleep based purely on the radio signals that bounce off their bodies without any wearable devices. They can further detect difficult diseases such as Parkinson’s and assess disease severity and progression remotely. The new sensors, called Emerald, operate by transmitting a low-power wireless signal and analyzing its reflections using machine learning models. I will show results from using such sensors for remote monitoring of patients with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and COVID-19. We envision that such technologies can enable a truly data-driven approach to drug development and healthcare delivery.

Bio

Dina Katabi is the Inaugural Thuan and Nicole Pham Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and the director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Katabi received her PhD and MS degrees from MIT in 2003 and 1999, and her Bachelor of Science from Damascus University in 1995. Her research interests span mobile systems, machine learning, health IoT, and wireless networks. She develops new technologies, algorithms, and systems that provide non-invasive health monitoring, enable smart homes, improve WiFi and cellular performance, and deliver new applications that are not feasible given today’s technologies. She has received multiple prestigious awards including the ACM Prize in Computing, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, two SIGCOMM Test of Time Awards, a Sloan Fellowship, the the IEEE William R. Bennett prize, and multiple best paper awards. Several start-ups have been spun out of Katabi’s lab such as PiCharging and Emerald.