eWEAR-X set to drive next generation of wearable technology

From smartwatches that detect heart disease to brain implants that restore cognitive function after a head injury, wearable technology’s potential to monitor and improve health is enormous and still largely untapped.

To push the boundaries of what’s possible, the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative, now known as eWEAR-X, is leading an effort to strengthen collaboration between researchers in engineering and medicine as well as to provide new prototyping tools. The goal is to advance wearable technology’s clinical and health applications.

Since its establishment in 2016, the initiative has promoted innovation in wearable technology, with a focus on connecting faculty members and companies to explore new avenues of research. It also hosts biannual symposia and monthly seminars featuring speakers from academia and industry. Originally abbreviated “eWEAR,” the short form of the initiative’s name has been changed to “eWEAR-X” to emphasize its new goal of providing more support to the broader Stanford community on research and entrepreneurship.

The donation from the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute is providing multi-year funding, including support for prototyping development projects, the purchase of new equipment, and the hiring of staff for the Ideation and Prototyping Lab (IPL). The newly named Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen IPL is in partnership with the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) and located in the Paul G. Allen Center. One tool eWEAR-X is acquiring for the lab is a scanner-guided laser tool that enables versatile cutting and engraving of small features in various materials. The tool can be used to fashion small electronic devices, enhancing researchers’ ability to make diminutive, elastic medical electronics that can be implanted or worn.

A new, full-time staff member in the IPL will provide additional expert support on prototyping electronics design and implementation, complementing existing SNF staff services. This donation also will provide seed funding for Stanford users to engage staff support in the lab.

“The Stanford Nanofabrication Facility has long been a leading space for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation,” said Jennifer Widom, the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the Stanford School of Engineering. “This generous donation enables us to expand the capabilities of the current prototyping facility to foster innovation specifically for medical technology, within and beyond Stanford. We’re grateful to the donor for making this important expansion possible, and excited to see the space take shape.”

A second, anonymous endowment donation is providing operational support for eWEAR-X and its core projects in neurotechnology, artificial intelligence-enhanced wearable electronics, and robotic “skin” — flexible, thin integrated circuits worn on the skin to allow humans to feel what robots do or, alternatively, to enhance a robot’s sense of touch.

Advancing interdisciplinary research

“I’m most excited about the possibility of helping lab inventions progress to clinical applications,” said Zhenan Bao, faculty director of eWEAR-X. “Many engineering inventions initially are bulky and unsuitable for human usage. For biologists to use them to validate a hypothesis or for a clinician to validate the applicability for treatment, we need these devices to be more user-friendly, portable, and lighter weight, and have apps that are easy to interact with.”

Advances along these lines in wearable electronics are underway in many Stanford labs. eWEAR-X aims to help accelerate their development and serve as a repository of expertise and resources for their researchers. “Our key effort is around forming a hub of innovation on the campus where we’re combining the strengths of Stanford engineering, medicine, and data science,” said Xiang Qian, faculty co-director of eWEAR-X.

Bao, professor of chemical engineering in the Stanford School of Engineering, works on developing skin-inspired materials, electronics, and batteries with an interdisciplinary group of researchers. For example, her research group, one of more than 80 groups at Stanford doing work relevant to wearable, implantable, and medical electronics, has produced elastic, skin-like sensors and integrated circuits that convert sensed pressure and temperature to electrical signals that are similar to nerve impulses. This prototype “e-skin,” which is the type of system that could be designed and implemented at the Chen IPL, could one day communicate with the brains of amputees, allowing them to control high-tech prosthetics and provide sensory feedback.

Brain-computer interfaces

In a similar vein, cutting-edge research on technology that enables brain signals to be interpreted by a computer — known as brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs — is taking place in Stanford’s Neural Prosthetics Translational Lab. Jaimie Henderson, the lab’s co-director and a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford Medicine, conducts research on microelectrode arrays implanted in volunteers whose paralysis or neurodegenerative disorders have impaired their speech. These sensors are coupled with software that decodes brain signals from the volunteers, allowing them to convey the words they intend to type, write, or speak onto a computer screen.

Henderson, who discussed his work at a recent symposium celebrating the Chen IPL, also investigates the treatment of movement disorders, epilepsy, pain, and other neurological diseases with implantable devices that work by modulating nerve signals. In a clinical trial, he and a team of researchers implanted an electrical device in the brains of people who had suffered traumatic head injuries, helping them recover some of the cognitive function they’d lost as a result.

Qian, a clinical professor of anesthesiology, perioperative, and pain medicine at Stanford Medicine, is particularly interested in this therapeutic approach, known as neuromodulation, for managing cranial nerve disorders that cause severe headaches and facial pain. He, Bao, and a multidisciplinary team of researchers are developing and validating a neuromodulation probe as thin as a hair for brain implantation, with plans to fabricate the probe in the Chen IPL. “Neuromodulation through peripheral nerve stimulation and spinal cord stimulation can counteract pain and other neuronal signals, providing meaningful relief for patients suffering from various conditions,” Qian said. “Through eWEAR-X, we are developing the next generation of neuromodulation technology, focusing on closed-loop and bidirectional capabilities, as well as utilizing new materials for improved biocompatibility and stability.”

Accelerating the future of wearables

There are dozens of other examples of projects on wearables underway at Stanford — including research on ankle exoskeletons to aid in running, gloves for improving hand function after a stroke, implants for treating Parkinson’s disease, non-invasive deep brain stimulation for treating Alzheimer’s disease, and wearables for detecting viral infection — and many more that are still in the conceptual phase.

“Wearables researchers need a place to accelerate the transformation of their ideas into products,” Qian said. “The Chen IPL provides a physical space where students, residents, fellows, postdocs, and faculty members in engineering and medicine can work together side by side.”