A good night’s sleep: Engineers develop technology for special needs children

he team’s projects so far have addressed around-the-clock technology: bed-based sensors to track child breathing and heart rates; wearable sensors to track child behaviors; and designs that can improve the quality of life for paraeducators who work with these children.

Now the team has received a three-year $400,000 National Science Foundation grant to expand these ideas and better establish a link between nighttime wellness and daytime learning and behavior. The project, “UNS: GARDE: Research to quantify the health and development of children with disabilities around the clock,” involves several Kansas State University engineering researchers who are combining their expertise.

“While relationships between sleep quality and daytime performance are well-characterized for neurotypical children, these relationships are not well known for severely disabled, autistic children, many of whom are nonverbal and have multiple co-existing disabilities,” said Steve Warren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and project leader. “Polysomnographs used for traditional sleep studies require electrodes, wires and equipment that are not suitable for these children. We seek alternative nighttime tools that, once hidden in a child’s bed and bedroom, can provide effective surrogate data when compared to traditional polysomnographs.”

Other Kansas State University researchers involved include Punit Prakash, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; David Thompson, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; Bala Natarajan, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Charles Carlson, doctoral student in electrical engineering, Hutchinson; Ahmad Suliman, doctoral student in electrical engineering, Afghanistan; Tianyu Lin, master’s student in electrical engineering, China; and Alaleh Alivar, doctoral student in electrical engineering, Iran.

The project also involves several undergraduate students in electrical engineering: Austin White, senior, Kansas City, Kansas; Shangxian Wang, sophomore, China; and Taishan Li, senior, China.

[“Source-phys”]