I am a currently PhD Candidate in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of Ottawa, serving as a Research Assistant in the Health Device Research Group (HDRG) supervised by Prof. Miodrag Bolic. I received my Master of Applied Science degree from University of Ottawa in the same research group in 2021. My research is about radar indoor sensing, vital signs monitroing and applied machine learning. Previously, I obtained my Bachelor of Engineering degree from Northeastern University (China) in 2018. I was a varsity athlete who played for the Northeastern University men’s soccer team in 2017-2018.

Selected News & Experience

PhD Study

My PhD study focus more on the general applications of radar. Compared to my master’s study, my research topic extended from specific range bin data analysis to global detection, tracking, and target association. The research methodology also evolved from purely real-world data processing to include simulation and processing. Additionally, the type of radar expanded from monostatic to MIMO, and from UWB radar only to UWB and all types of FMCW radar. Consequently, the data processed extended from 1-dimensional points to 3-dimensional point clouds (last update Mar. 2024).

PhD Comprehensive Exam

In 2023, to better achieve my research goals for my PhD, my supervisor and I developed a curriculum plan. I prepared for and successfully passed the relevant PhD comprehensive exams, focusing on Radar Signal Processing, Biomedical Signal Analysis, and Artificial Neural Networks.

Lab2Market

In spring and summer 2022, I participated in the Lab2Market program organized by NSERC. With funding from NSERC and guidance from program organizers, I conducted market research on the indoor radar monitoring technology I had been working on. This involved designing and distributing online questionnaires, reaching out to and interviewing stakeholders, developing a business model, and producing both a market research report and an elevator pitch presentation. The elevator pitch presentation video is available at here.

Hospital Project

After I joined the HDRG, our research group initiated the research program that uses radar to monitor heart failure patient long-term vitals in Winter 2019 at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) [link]. We designed and developed the initial prototype of our experimental device and commenced data collection in the summer of 2019. The prototype included an Intel Realsense Depth Camera and a Novelda Xethru X4 UWB radar. The depth camera was utilized to collect ground truth image data, monitoring patient activities within the designated zone without capturing facial details. The project was suspended in Winter 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in Winter 2023. During the suspension, I redesigned the entire device, replacing the depth camera with a thermal sensor to ensure enhanced image quality while maintaining patient anonymity. The devices are currently still in use. We collected 48-hour data from volunteer patients under the supervision of collaborating doctors, with 15 heart failure patients currently participating in our study. Additionally, in 2019, we installed our data collection device at the Perly Health Center and obtained data from one senior volunteer [link]. The experimental methodology and findings of this research will be published in mid-2024.”

Developing IoT Device

In 2021 fall, I developed front and back-end systems that work with hospital collection devices, upgrading the hospital data collection system to an IoT system. Users can now access and upload data through an Android app. The system features three user identities: administrator, doctor, and client, each with distinct access and operation privileges. More details of the IoT system is available at here.”

Real-Time Radar Indoor Monitoring System

Between 2021 and 2022, HDRG engineered a real-time indoor monitoring system comprising a Kinect camera and three radars to track the location, respiration rate, and breathing patterns of multiple individuals in all directions. The system comprises a Kinect camera for target localization and radar signal selection, and three radar sensors for respiratory rate estimation and respiratory pattern classification. Our system was featured in the journal Frontier, with my primary contribution lying in the development of radar signal processing algorithms and the integration and testing of the system. More details of the system is available at here.

Master Thesis

For my master’s thesis completed in 2021, I developed a simulation model for abnormal respiratory patterns, implemented shapelet-based time series classification for respiratory pattern recognition, and created high-precision and high-recall models for real-time implementation and long-term analysis, respectively. The thesis document can be accessed here.

Graduate Study

During my master’s studies, I specialized in respiratory signal analysis, focusing on vital signs extraction from radar signals, signal quality assessment, and identification of abnormal respiratory patterns using time-domain features. As a second author, I contributed to a conference paper published in EMBC 2020, wherein I developed an algorithm to evaluate the quality of collected breathing signals and validated the effectiveness of my coauthor’s body tracking method. The paper is available at here.

Undergrad Thesis

I completed my undergraduate thesis in Jun. 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Jianhui Wang (author of Principles of Automatic Control, Chinese Version). In this thesis, I developed an EMG-based gait cycle phase classification model. This involved collecting 4-channel EMG signals from muscles including the rectus femoris, hamstring, tibialis anterior tendon, and gastrocnemius to predict gait phases. The objective was to explore the control scheme of assisting lower-limb exoskeletons. This work received the Excellent Bachelor Thesis Award from the College of Information Science and Engineering at Northeastern University.

Hospital onsite engineer internship experience

I interned at Neusoft from Dec. 2017 to Feb. 2018. I worked in the Neusoft Medical Laboratory Information System sector as an onsite software engineer at a Provincial Cancer Center and a Municipal General Hospital. My responsibilities included operating and maintaining the lab information system, which managed lab test results independently of the hospital information system.

Varsity Athelete Career

I served as the Captain of the Information Science and Engineering College Men’s Soccer Team during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, playing as a midfielder. In 2017-2018, I was selected to play for our University men’s soccer team and competed in municipal, provincial, and international high-level games. Additionally, I have been awarded University Scholarships and athlete bursaries in 2017 and 2018.