Sheng Xu
Assistant Professor
Department of Nanoengineering
University of California San Diego
Seminar Information
Soft electronic devices that can acquire vital signs from the human body represent an important trend for healthcare. Combined strategies of materials design and advanced microfabrication allow the integration of a variety of components and devices on a stretchable platform, resulting in systems with minimal constraints on the human body. We have demonstrated a skin-mounted multichannel health monitor that can sense local field potentials, temperature, strain, acceleration, and body orientation. Integrating ultrasonic transducers on this stretchable platform adds a third dimension to the detection range by launching ultrasound waves that reach well underneath the skin. The ultrasound waves allow capturing a wide range of dynamic events in deep tissues such as blood pressure and blood flow waveforms in central arteries and veins. This technology holds profound implications for continuous and noninvasive sensing, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases.
Sheng Xu is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Nanoengineering at UC San Diego. He received his B.S. in Chemistry and Molecular Engineering from Peking University in Beijing, China, and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate in Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he developed advanced stretchable electronic systems for healthcare and energy applications. His research group currently focuses on crystalline material growth for high-performance energy devices, nanosensors for intracellular action potential recording, and wearable electronics for human-machine interface and health monitoring. His research has been recognized by a series of awards, including the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, the TSMC Research Gold Award, and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Prize for Young Chemists.