Robert Karam, a PhD student at the University of Florida’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) advised by FICS Research Director of Education, Prof. Swarup Bhunia, was awarded a best paper award at this year’s BioMedical Circuits and Systems (BioCAS) Conference in Shanghai, China.

His paper, “Ultralow Power Data Compression for Implantable Bladder Pressure Monitor: Algorithm and Hardware Implementation”, which was based on a collaborative project between Robert, Prof. Bhunia and researchers from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic, was chosen from among 150 accepted papers and over 300 submissions. It presents findings that support the idea that an implantable biomedical device can facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as incontinence, overactive bladder, and other dysfunctions of the lower urinary tract by helping to monitor bladder activity over time. The crux of the paper presents a novel algorithm which is designed to perform efficient, on-chip compression of bladder pressure data with tunable quality that also provides significant overall power savings. To the researchers knowledge, this is the first example of dedicated on-chip compression for bladder pressure data designed for an ultralow-power biomedical implant.

To learn more about Robert and the type of research he is involved in at the FICS Research Institute, check out his profile on our Students page.