A-WEAR young researchers start working on innovative algorithm developments for future wearables
Young researchers in a new, ambitious A-WEAR project of Tampere University are about to start creating novel multi-layer knowledge on the localisation, connectivity, privacy and security of dynamic wearable networks.
“We will create software tools for the designers of future products so that they may better understand the various aspects of wearable computing, such as localisation, communication and privacy issues,” says Associate Professor Elena Simona Lohan from Tampere University.
Wearable technology has a very broad impact on many aspects of our lives: in the nearest future, smart wearables are expected to disrupt most business sectors, such as industrial, education, health, and sports domains, and are going to reshape the industrial landscape as smart inter-connected spaces. Industry in its widest sense will therefore benefit from this research and the new cohort of researchers/innovators that will be delivered.
“In addition, the general public will benefit since A-WEAR project aims not only to analyse the impact from technological side but also to highlight future challenges from multiple perspectives: user adoption, required education, privacy, and security perspectives. The future is right behind the corner and wearable devices would definitely be a part of it,” Lohan says.
A-WEAR project, which stands for “WEarable Applications with pRivacy constraints”, is an H2020 EU-funded project under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement No. 813278, joining together the expertise of five European universities and 12 industrial partners across Europe in order to train together 15 researchers to obtain double or joint doctoral degrees over 3 years. Four of these 15 PhD fellows are employed by Tampere University.
The research topics of A-WEAR program are focused on identifying and solving the challenges in the areas of security and efficiency of such devices, which includes the following:
• the research of Waleed Bin Qaim (Pakistan) focuses on reducing the energy requirements of wearables by applying approximate computing and he will complete a double doctoral degree in Tampere University and Universita Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Italy.
• Lucie Klus (Czech Republic) works on improving the efficiency of storage, transfer, and processing of wearable-based databases, utilizing, among others, the modern coding and compression methods. She will complete a joint doctoral degree in Tampere University and Universitat Jaume I, Spain.
• the research of Viktoriia Shubina (Russia) focuses on the privacy and security related challenges in user tracking and positioning via wearables and she will complete a double doctoral degree in Tampere University and University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania.
• Asad Ali (Pakistan) researches the utilization of millimetre-wave bands of the emerging 5G solutions for wearable communications. He will complete a joint doctoral degree in Tampere University and Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
Additionally, six other doctoral fellows will be hosted by Tampere University over the next three years as their place of secondment in the course of achieving a double or a joint doctoral degree.
The fellows are supervised by experienced researchers and professors at their universities, while being supported by a strong team of managers. Elena Simona Lohan, Jari Nurmi, Sergey Andreev, Yevgeni Koucheryavy, Aleksandr Ometov, and Salla Kotakorva are the members of the A-WEAR team at Tampere University.
The next A-WEAR event will take place in Ruka, in February 2020, where scientists from Finland and from abroad will discuss the technologies, challenges, and opportunities of wearable computing devices.
Further information is available on http://www.a-wear.eu
Inquiries:
Associate Professor, Dr. Tech. Elena Simona Lohan, media.a-wear [at] tuni.fi or info.a-wear [at] tuni.fi
