Radar as an Enabling Technology in Cyber-Physical Human Systems

As technology advances and an increasing number of devices enter our homes and workplace, humans have become an integral component of cyber-physical systems (CPS). One of the grand challenges of cyber-physical human systems (CPHS) is how to design autonomous systems where human-system collaboration is optimized through improved understanding of human behavior. A new frontier within this landscape is afforded by the advent of low-cost, low-power millimeter (mm)-wave RF transceivers, which enables the exploitation of RF sensors almost anywhere as part of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), smart environments, personal devices, and even wearables. RF sensors not only provide sensing capability when other sensors may be ineffective due to environmental factors, but also provide unique spatio-kinematic measurements that are complementary to that of other sensing modalities. Moreover, in indoor environments where privacy is also a driving consideration, RF sensors offer relatively non-intrusive perception capabilities. Consequently, there have been exciting recent advancements in the use of RF sensing for human-computer interaction, remote health monitoring, and smart homes. Since the first research in radar-based human activity recognition over 15 years ago, where the technology was demonstrated in controlled lab settings, now radar can be found in many new devices hitting the market. This includes the Google SOLI sensor in cell phones for non-contact gesture recognition, as well as products under development by Amazon, Vayyar and others for sleep monitoring, vital sign monitoring, and occupancy recognition. However, these applications only begin to touch the surface of the potential for radar-enabled cyber-physical human systems (CPHS). Future intelligent devices equipped with cognitive perception and learning will be able to much more effectively and robustly decipher and respond to complex human behaviors. This talk provides a detailed discussion of current sensing and machine learning challenges, as well as new perspectives that can help us overcome current limitations and pave the way for future radar-enabled interactive environments.

Dr. Sevgi Gurbuz

Associate Professor, North Carolina State University on February 14, 2025 at 10:15 AM in EB2 1231
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Sevgi Z. Gurbuz received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering with minor in mechanical engineering and the M.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, in 2009. From February 2000 to January 2004, she worked as a Radar Signal Processing Research Engineer with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate, Rome, NY, USA. More recently, she was an Assistant Professor (Aug. 2017 – Aug. 2024) and Associate Professor (Aug.-Dec. 2024) at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Since Jan. 2025, Dr. Gurbuz has been an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, USA.

Dr. Gurbuz's main focus of research lies in the advancement of RF-enabled Cyber-Physical Human Systems (CPHS), radar signal processing and machine learning algorithms to address the challenges of robust, accurate human micro-Doppler signature analysis, automatic target recognition (ATR) and control of CPHS for automotive, health, human computer-interaction, and defense applications. She has pioneered radar-based American Sign Language (ASL) recognition, for which she was awarded a patent in 2022, and is developing novel, interactive RF sensing paradigms built upon physics-aware machine learning and fully-adaptive (cognitive) radar that provide for unique AI/ML solutions to radar perception problems. Dr. Gurbuz is a recipient of a 2023 NSF CAREER Award, the 2022 American Association of University Women Research Publication Grant in Medicine and Biology, the 2019 IEEE Harry Rowe Mimno Award, 2020 SPIE Rising Researcher Award, EU Marie Curie Research Fellowship, and the 2010 IEEE Radar Conference Best Student Paper Award.

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