Nelson Honored With NSF CAREER Award in Human-Centered Computing

Alexander Nelson, assistant professor of computer science and computer engineering, received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Information and Intelligent Systems’ Human-Centered Computing program. This is the most prestigious award presented by the foundation to support junior faculty who display the most effective integration of research and education in the context of the U of A’s mission.

Alexander Nelson

His project, titled “Enhancing Ambient Capacitive Sensing Through Improved Resolution and Multi-Modal Sensor Fusion,” will contribute to the advancement of medical technologies for physical and occupational rehabilitation patients.

Physical therapists, occupational therapists and other doctors are only able to see their patients for a brief period on any given day. Some health factors rely on a high number of motions to re-learn how to do them, teaching the brain how to make the neurological connections needed to move the body properly. The problem this project seeks to address is that there is not enough time in the average rehabilitation appointment for doctors to supervise the patient’s movements completely and with the highest accuracy.

The most common solution would be to use cameras to track the motions of the patient, but then the user faces issues of privacy and potential connection problems if coverage is unstable. Instead, Nelson’s project will use wearable capacitive sensors to perform real-time motion analysis.

“The cool thing about this project is that it is human-centered,” Nelson said. “A lot of people think computer science is just about building faster, more powerful technology — and it is — but they don’t think about how technology can improve the human experience through interaction.”

Nelson credits many of the U of A’s programs for setting the foundation for this research award. The Chancellor’s Innovation Fund in support of faculty research at the U of A helped Nelson and students complete a project using some of the tools that will be used in this project. The Engineering Research and Innovation Seed Funding Program from the College of Engineering is awarded to assist engineering researchers in developing new innovative research programs that have strong potential for significant future support from government agencies, corporations, industry, consortia or foundations. This award helps Nelson and his students work with capacitive sensor arrays (CSAs) for smart robots, the same technology that will be used in this project.

“Internal funding mechanisms produced the pilot work that led to the hypotheses and research questions that we want to address with this project,” Nelson said.

The accompanying educational plan aims to improve technology literacy among the public by hosting a workshop for middle-schoolers during the annual engineering camps at the U of A. This workshop will teach kids to program Arduino computers for the Internet of Things. In addition, Nelson will have a workshop for graduate students and faculty on emerging research on the Internet of Things related to medicine. This workshop will bring in scholars for seminars and a panel in a conference setting for students and faculty across the nation in the fifth year of the project.

Jia Di, head of the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, is excited to see the junior faculty in the department being awarded for their hard work.

“It is an honor to have Dr. Nelson on our team, and we are proud to see his work recognized by the National Science Foundation with this prestigious award,” Di said. “This grant will help Dr. Nelson create impactful work in both computer science and health fields.”

Nelson recognizes the support he has received from the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, the College of Engineering and the U of A as vital to his success.

Dani Jackson, communications and marketing specialist
Computer Science and Computer Engineering
417-209-7865, dj016@uark.edu