A-WEAR Project Successfully Concludes with the Defense of the Last PhD Thesis

After years of intensive research and collaboration, the A-WEAR project has successfully concluded with the final defense of the last PhD thesis on 3.12.2024. This marks the full completion of an ambitious EU-funded initiative that aimed to advance the development of secure, efficient, and privacy-conscious wearable technologies. A-WEAR has trained 15 PhD researchers across Europe, all of whom have now earned double or joint doctoral degrees, contributing innovative solutions to the evolving landscape of wearable computing. 

A-WEAR, which stands for "WEarable Applications with pRivacy constraints," is a Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie project (grant agreement No. 813278) led by Tampere University. The project brought together the expertise of five European universities and a dozen of industrial partners to address challenges in localisation, connectivity, security, and privacy within dynamic wearable networks. 

“We are happy to announce that the A-WEAR project has reached its successful conclusion, with each PhD fellow having completed their defense. The contributions made by this outstanding cohort of young researchers are already being felt in both academia and industry,” said Professor Elena Simona Lohan, who coordinated the project.  

The A-WEAR researchers have developed novel software tools and frameworks for wearable technologies, with a particular focus on enhancing localisation accuracy, reducing energy consumption, improving data storage, and bolstering privacy and security. The outcomes of this research are already influencing the design of future wearables, shaping the next generation of smart devices across sectors such as healthcare, education, industry, and sports. 

“These researchers have addressed critical issues, particularly around privacy and security, that are paramount to the adoption of wearable technologies. Their work highlights the multi-layered impact that wearables will have on society and industry,” states Dr. Aleksandr Ometov, who was responsible for training of the researchers. 

Throughout the project, PhD fellows collaborated across borders, with several completing double or joint degrees at partner universities (the list is available at the end of the post). As a final milestone, all 15 PhD fellows have successfully defended their theses, ensuring that the project's goals have been fully realized. The project has delivered a new generation of experts equipped to address the future of wearable technology and its widespread applications. 

The A-WEAR team at Tampere University expressed their pride in the accomplishments of the PhD fellows and thanked all the project’s partners for their collaboration.  

“The impact of this research will continue to be seen in the development of wearable devices that prioritize user privacy, security, and energy efficiency,” says Salla Kotakorva, who was responsible for administative management of the project.  

With the successful conclusion of A-WEAR, the project has achieved its objectives, leaving a lasting legacy in the field of wearable computing and setting a strong foundation for future innovations. 

List of A-WEAR Doctoral researchers, affiliated with Tampere University:  

• Waleed Bin Qaim (ESR 1): Edge-assisted Task Offloading in the Internet of Wearable Things, 16.04.2024 
• Lucie Klus (ESR 2): From Compression of Wearable-based Data to Effortless Indoor Positioning, 27.04.2023 
• Viktoriia Shubina (ESR 3): Privacy-aware BLE Proximity Detection through Optimizing Trade-offs, 13.12.2023 
• Asad Ali (ESR 4): Performance Dynamics of Directional Extended Reality Networks, 03.12.2024 
• Darwin P. Quezada Gaibor (ESR 5): Cloud-based Indoor Positioning Platform for Context-adaptivity in GNSS-denied Scenarios, 31.03.2023 
• Pável Pascacio De Los Santos (ESR 6): Collaborative Techniques for Indoor Positioning Systems, 09.06.2023 
• Laura Fluerătoru (ESR 8): Robust, Energy-Efficient, and Scalable Indoor Localization with Ultra-Wideband Technology, 03.07.2023 
• Justyna Skibińska (ESR 11): Machine Learning-Aided Monitoring and Prediction of Respiratory and Neurodegenerative Diseases Using Wearables, 04.12.2023 
• Salwa Saafi (ESR 12): Access and Backhaul Solutions for Cellular-Enabled Industrial Wearables, 17.05.2023 
• Olga Chukhno (ESR 14): Toward Dynamic Social-Aware Networking Beyond Fifth Generation, 05.04.2023 

  
Additional links: A-WEAR Zenodo webpage; All PhD thesis works