Omer Inan has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his research project entitled “Wearable Joint Sounds Sensing for Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.” Inan is an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common form of childhood arthritis and is a disability affecting more than 50,000 children in the United States. JIA’s presentation and progression can vary greatly from person to person, and a multitude of new treatment options are available for the various stages of the disease. Diagnosing, tracking, and treating JIA on a patient-by-patient basis is difficult because of a lack of tools for assessing the condition.

This project will focus on researching wearable joint health sensing systems for persons with JIA that will allow for continuous assessment both in and out of the clinic. The project will also include several educational objectives which are closely integrated with the research:

• a team of undergraduate researchers, particularly from underrepresented groups, will be formed to work closely with a graduate student on the sensing brace design;
• authentic learning modules will be developed based on the collected data for the PI’s courses; and
• through an existing program at Georgia Tech, K-12 teachers will be hosted over the summer in Inan’s lab to develop science and engineering curriculum modules for their courses that are infused with art.

Inan is a member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and a program faculty member for the Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program. His most recent honors include the ECE Outstanding Junior Faculty Member Award (2018), the Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award (2017), and the Lockheed Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award in (2016). He is also a senior member of IEEE.