Take 6: Wenzhuo Wu, College of Engineering
Wenzhuo Wu is the Ravi and Eleanor Talwar Rising Star Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering from the School of Industrial Engineering in the College of Engineering. He has developed a wearable triboelectric device capable of high-fidelity cardiovascular monitoring. It harvests operational power from human motion. The device can detect even the slightest degree of skin movement caused by the human pulse.
The device will be leveraged by LifeSpan Digital Health, a high-tech startup that uses game-based interventions to help users identify stress- and anxiety-related events in real time and receive a personalized intervention. LifeSpan received a one-year, Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant of $255,409 from the National Science Foundation, which will fund Wu’s research on the device.
Wu generously shared some of his time to answer our questions.
Question: Do you procrastinate? How do you manage?
Wenzhuo Wu: Yes, I do procrastinate from time to time, usually on things that I have to do rather than I want to do. I usually set deadlines for things I tend to procrastinate on and prioritize them based on urgency.
Q: Did something in your undergraduate studies lead you to your current path?
Wu: I participated in a robotic design competition with my teammates during the summer of my sophomore year. I was intrigued and fascinated by the fact that the integration of microcontrollers, mechanical structures, fabrication, electronic circuits and programming could lead to robots that can maneuver in the designed way.
Back in that time, almost 20 years ago, we only had 8-bit microcomputers such as AT89C51 that require assembly language programming to control the motors. We did not have 3D printers but a drilling machine and handsaws for making the robotic parts. We did not have Arduino or Raspberry Pi but only breadboard and manually etched PCB boards. I think any LEGO® robot toys nowadays look fancier and have more functions than the robots we built back then. However, that experience definitely ignited my interests in making things or devices that can sense and respond with intelligence.
I think I gained some vague ideas back then from this experience that I wanted to understand more about how these things — electronics, microcontrollers, sensors, etc. — work at the fundamental physics and material levels. I guess those early experiences and ideas motivated or guided me in some way to pursue my Master’s and Ph.D. studies and research in semiconductor devices and materials science, which provide me with the fundamental understanding of how sensors and electronics work.
The experiences using the drilling machine and handsaw back then also let me understand that we also need to translate the fundamental material science discovered in the lab into things with real impact, e.g., products, and such a process should be achieved through manufacturing. Meanwhile, I think that experience was probably my first exposure to cyber-physical systems where I learnt how to integrate data/programming with physical devices.
There are many factors that contributed to what I am doing now in research. But I think that experience of building a crude robot back then was probably the most significant part of them.
Q: How would you describe/explain your research in one sentence?
Wu: Innovating unprecedented material technologies for next-generation human-centered products, e.g., wearable devices, energy solutions, etc., through nanomanufacturing across length scales.
Q: How do you decompress after a long day?
Wu: I have several ways to decompress.
· I watch my kids play and grow at their tennis practices. I hope I will have more time to play.
· I read with my kids. “Dog Man” by Dav Pilkey and “Journey to the West” a Chinese fantasy by Wu Cheng’en are our favorites.
· I hike with my family on weekends. Eagle Creek and Fort Harrison parks are our favorites.
· I watch TV drama series. The “Person of Interest” series is my favorite.
Q: Who is a person in your field or history whom you feel more people should know about?
Wu: My Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Zhong Lin Wang at Georgia Tech. I learnt a lot from him at the personal and professional levels. Also, he is the pioneer in the area of triboelectric devices and his original research has inspired many ongoing research and development in wearable devices, including our technology optioned by LifeSpan.
Q: If you could snap your fingers and eliminate one problem or barrier in your field, what would it be?
Wu: The realization of true self-powered wearable devices without the need of batteries.
Thank you again Wenzhuo Wu for participating in Take 6!
