Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Omer Inan was one of five College of Engineering faculty to receive Regents’ appointments from the University System of Georgia (USG) Board of Regents at its April meeting.

Inan was named a Regents’ Entrepreneur, the highest distinction from the system recognizing faculty members for academic, innovation, and entrepreneurial excellence.

The designation is bestowed upon the unanimous recommendation of the USG institution president, the chief academic officer, and the chancellor, and upon the approval of the Committee on Academic Affairs.

“Omer is exceedingly deserving of this appointment, and we are so proud of everything he’s accomplished with ECE,” Steve W. Chaddick School Chair and Professor Arijit Raychowdhury said. “We pride ourselves on fostering an entrepreneurial environment at ECE and Omer has been an integral part of that.”

Inan’s research focuses on developing new technologies to monitor and quantify human health, including allowing patients with chronic diseases to track their health at home. He is working to design systems that help patients measure cardiac data to track their heart health. Other technologies would noninvasively quantify stress and modulate the body’s response to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and listen to joints to assess musculoskeletal health.

In recent years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has designated two technologies developed based on Inan’s research as Breakthrough Devices, accelerating their use for patients. One is a handheld noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation device (from electroCore, Inc.) to reduce the physiological response to stress for PTSD patients. The other is an algorithm and wearable device to monitor patients with heart failure. The algorithm and wearable device are part of a company Inan cofounded called Cardiosense.

Inan is a fellow of IEEE, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

This is the third year in a row an ECE faculty member has received the honor. Inan joins Jennifer Hasler, Raghupathy Sivakumar, and Farrokh Ayazi as ECE recipients of the Regents’ Entrepreneurs title.

Overall, 19 Georgia Tech faculty members were honored with 2024 Regents' Distinctions.