Pregnant women often worry about their babies’ health in between doctor’s visits, but a new mobile app can help put them at ease.

Studies show that one in five pregnant women experience perinatal anxiety, which is characterized by intense negative thoughts about their pregnancy.

Those women will soon be able to conduct an ultrasound and receive an accurate fetal heart rate from their mobile phones.

DopFone uses smartphone speakers to emit a low-pitched ultrasound that detects reflected signals of abdominal surface vibrations caused by fetal cardiac activity.

Alex Adams, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing and faculty member in the Institute for People and Technology, said he came up with the idea for DopFone as he and his wife, Elise, suffered through two miscarriages. Elise couldn’t reliably measure the fetal heart rate with a commodity fetal Doppler heart rate monitor.

Those experiences exposed some gaps in the maternal healthcare process.

“There are a lot of great devices in hospitals and clinics, but there’s not much outside of those venues, even for high-risk pregnancies,” Adams said. “This is about filling the gaps between checkups.”

Poojita Garg joined Adams to work on DopFone while completing her master’s at Georgia Tech. She is now pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Washington and is co-advised by Professor Shwetak Patel, who earned his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 2008.

Garg is working with the University of Washington School of Medicine to conduct DopFone’s first clinical trials.

Garg tested DopFone on 23 patients and achieved a plus-minus of 4.9 beats per minute, well within the clinical standard for reliable fetal heart rate measurement of plus-minus 8 beats per minute.

Adams said it measured within plus minus 2 beats per minute in most cases with an error rate of less than 1 percent.

About 1 million pregnancies in the U.S. end in miscarriage, according to a study from the Yale School of Medicine, and doctors know little about what causes them. Adams said that number is probably higher because many go unreported.

Adams and Garg said it’s unclear whether the innovation could reduce the number of miscarriages. However, consistent fetal heart rate data collection outside of the doctor’s office could provide a better idea of what happens leading up to a miscarriage.

“From there, we can take preventative action,” Adams said. “If nothing else, we can give a sense of comfort to those who may be worried.”

Expanding Access

While couples can purchase portable fetal heart rate monitors, Adams and Garg see DopFone as a low-cost alternative for those who live in areas with poor or inaccessible healthcare systems. 

“There’s a lot of potential for using it in what doctors like to call maternity deserts,” Garg said. “These are areas where a pregnant person, at the time of delivery, would have to travel long distances to reach a hospital. This technology will be useful globally in underdeveloped areas of the world.”

The researchers also said external add-ons and attachments aren’t included in their design goals. They prefer to use what’s built into the phone to keep the technology accessible.

“The real value is that 96% of America already has the technology in their pocket, along with 60% of the world’s population,” Adams said. “Half of the battle is having the right tools. The more we can get form what’s already in the phone, the more we can guarantee people have access to it.”

Not a Substitute

Some patients may feel a constant need to check the heart rate, and Garg acknowledged a tool like DopFone could increase that anxiety. She and Adams said a future version of the app will tell the parent if the heart rate is within a healthy range.

“There’s a lot of tradeoffs between a tool that could provide reassurance or create anxiety,” she said. “We want the use of this tool to be recommended by a doctor and for doctors and their care teams to be kept in the loop.”

She also said DopFone is not meant to replace anything that is done in a clinic.

“There are devices that make the whole process possible at home, but this is something that should be done in a clinic, so that’s the line we want to draw,” she said.

Georgia Tech doctoral student Charles Nimo has been selected as the newest recipient of the Roland Ewubare Fellowship in Societal Engagement and Impact, a philanthropic program supporting underrepresented graduate students whose research advances community focused, socially relevant scholarship.

Funded by Roland Ewubare, a distinguished Nigerian lawyer and corporate executive, the fellowship recognizes emerging scholars whose master’s or doctoral work meaningfully connects with societal engagement and impact. 

The program expands opportunities for graduate researchers committed to addressing real world challenges through innovative, community centered inquiry.

Nimo is a third year Ph.D. student in computer science and a graduate research assistant in the Technologies and International Development Lab led by Michael L. Best, executive director of the Institute for People and Technology and professor in both the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing. He is co-advised by Irfan Essa, professor in the School of Interactive Computing.

Nimo’s research explores human centered natural language processing for healthcare, as well as multilingual AI systems in low resource contexts. Nimo develops tools to evaluate and improve the safety, robustness, and global inclusion of language technologies. His broader goal is to build AI systems that are fair, reliable, and effective across diverse languages and cultures, helping ensure that technological advances benefit communities often overlooked in mainstream AI development.

“I’m very grateful to receive this fellowship for societal impact,” Nimo said. “Thank you for this support and believing in the work, and I’m excited to keep building research that translates into real world benefit.”

Nimo earned his B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and his M.S. in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Now in its fourth year, the Stretch Robot Pitch Competition continues to evolve into one of Georgia Tech’s most imaginative and human‑centered design challenges. Hosted by the TechSAge Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (part of which is located in CIDI), the competition brings together students from across the Institute to create innovative applications for Stretch –  a lightweight, open source mobile manipulator robot with reaching, sensing, and grasping capabilities. Stretch was developed by Hello Robot which was co‑founded by former Georgia Tech professor Charlie Kemp. 

With its compact form factor, capable arm, and relatively affordable price, Stretch has already become a favorite among researchers looking to push the boundaries of assistive robotics. The pitch competition invites Georgia Tech students to imagine not just what the robot can do, but what it should do to meaningfully improve daily life for people aging with disabilities.

This year, teams across several disciplines—from engineering, to business, to computing, and the sciences—submitted video pitches outlining how their technology concept tackles real-world problems users face. The winning team earned $1,000 and, more importantly, the chance to spend a semester working with Stretch in Georgia Tech’s Aware Home turning their pitch into a working prototype. Sponsors included TechSAge, AI-CARING, the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), and Hello Robot.

First place was awarded to “Chef Stretch,” a concept aimed at helping older adults with disabilities determine whether food has spoiled so they can prepare and consume food safely. The five-student team included Caitlin Woodward and Elizabeth Thompson (College of Engineering), Aditi Ashok (Scheller College of Business), and Michelle Gu and Vedita Sawhney (College of Sciences).

While Chef Stretch took the top prize, the judges awarded an honorable mention to Ali Vafaeian (College of Computing) for “Bimanual Clothes Manipulation and Assisted Dressing” with a $500 cash prize. His proposal tackles another essential activity of daily living, dressing, which can be challenging task for many individuals with mobility impairments. 

Read more about this competition and watch the winning students pitches >>

The Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) is deeply engaged in advancing pediatric research and clinical innovation through a partnership with the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center at Georgia Tech (PTC). The center brings clinical experts from Children’s together with Georgia Tech scientists and engineers to develop technological solutions to problems in the health and care of children. The PTC provides opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration to create breakthrough discoveries that enhance the lives of children and young adults in Georgia and beyond.

IPaT is supporting research within two of PTC’s three core research pillars: data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence; and patient‑centered care delivery. PTC’s third research pillar is focused on technologies and devices. With the expertise of IPaT’s research scientists, these joint efforts combine scientific expertise, clinical insight, and shared funding that are helping to transform research innovations into operational tools that directly support pediatric patient care at Children’s.

“IPaT is bringing two core competencies to both of these research pillars,” said Maribeth Gandy Coleman, IPaT’s director of research. “First, we’re advocating for and supporting the use of people-centered techniques to inform the research and co-designing the resulting system with all the stakeholders. Second, we’re also making sure we can translate this research into a real return on investment for Children’s. We are ensuring that what we design can be deployed in the hospital, and that it can be integrated with their existing systems and merge as seamlessly as possible with their existing workflows.”

Supporting Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence (Pillar 1)
Pillar 1 focuses on harnessing artificial intelligence to enable more personalized and predictive pediatric care. The work aims to improve data collection infrastructure, support equitable AI practices, and build a Children’s-Georgia Tech pediatric AI collaboration that integrates advanced AI tools into clinical workflows.

Clinical Deterioration Prediction
One of the flagship projects within Pillar 1 involves developing machine learning models that can detect clinical deterioration in hospitalized children. The goal is to identify when a patient needs urgent escalation to the intensive care unit — faster and more accurately than traditional monitoring.

To achieve this, IPaT research scientists are:

• Extracting and securely transferring electronic health record (EHR) data from Children’s clinical systems.
• Training predictive models using that real‑world data.
• Building the software infrastructure required to deploy these models inside Children’s.
• Integrating model outputs directly into the EHR using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources communication protocols. (FHIR is an international standard for the electronic exchange of healthcare information.)

This infrastructure is intentionally designed not just for this single project but as a repeatable, scalable framework for future AI‑enabled clinical tools developed through the Children’s-Georgia Tech partnership.

AI-Enhanced Decision-Making for Hospital Operations
A second emerging project under Pillar 1 aims to address one of healthcare’s most persistent operational challenges: ICU capacity management. Seasonal fluctuations, such as surges in flu or Covid‑19 cases, can create sudden ICU demand surges and staff illnesses, which can make scheduling and staffing decisions challenging.

IPaT is building models that incorporate historical hospital activity, seasonal variation, and real‑time census and staffing levels to predict scheduling needs and help Children’s optimize resource allocation. This research is just beginning, but holds the potential for improving both care delivery and staff well‑being. More importantly, IPaT is applying user-centered design and research techniques along with the engineering work to engage with Children’s people and processes to ensure that these prediction and resource allocation models actually work, and that they will actually be used and useful in the Children’s clinical environment. 
 

Supporting Patient‑Centered Care Delivery (Pillar 2)
Pillar 2 seeks to improve pediatric outcomes by focusing on the “whole child” — physical, psychological, social, and emotional well‑being — while accounting for the needs of families, caregivers, and community environments. Particular emphasis is placed on behavioral health, rural healthcare access, and chronic illness in underserved populations.

IPaT contributes to this work on two fronts:

User Experience and Workflow Research
IPaT’s user experience (UX) researchers conduct interviews, workflow studies, and design evaluations with Children’s clinicians and staff. This human‑centered research helps shape the interfaces, processes, and technologies needed to deliver patient‑centered care in practical, usable ways. These contributions ensure that tools created through the partnership align with the realities of clinical practice.

Data Integration for Behavioral and Social Insights
For Pillar 2 research, IPaT’s secure data enclave enables Children’s EHR data to be transferred, stored, and analyzed in a HIPAA‑compliant environment. Researchers are using this infrastructure to combine clinical data with voluntarily contributed social media information from consenting participants. The aim is to explore indicators of psychological well‑being, behavioral health trends, and early warnings related to self‑harm.
 

A Secure, Scalable Data Infrastructure to Support Both Pillars
The IPaT secure data enclave provides a protected, secure environment for storing and analyzing sensitive patient information. It serves as the backbone connecting Georgia Tech researchers with Children’s clinical systems. Both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 research initiatives rely on this Georgia Tech IPaT-managed secure infrastructure to safely enable:

• EHR data transfer and storage.
• Machine learning model development.
• Testing and validation workflows.
• Eventual operational deployment back into Children’s systems.

This secure, scalable architecture is central to the shared goal of translating research into actionable clinical tools.

Accelerating Pediatric Discovery 
Georgia Tech’s partnership with Children’s represents a powerful model for cross‑institutional innovation. By aligning IPaT’s strengths in human‑centered design, machine learning, and secure data systems with Children’s clinical expertise, IPaT is helping to build solutions that move quickly from concept to bedside.

As these projects grow, especially with the ongoing expansion of the clinical deterioration system and the launch of the AI-enhanced operations initiative, IPaT research scientists anticipate even greater opportunities to support Children’s mission and improve pediatric health outcomes.

Thank you to Richard Starr for providing insight about these research projects.

Georgia Tech has appointed David Sherrill as executive director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS), effective March 1. Sherrill is a Regents' Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry with a joint appointment in the School of Computational Science & Engineering. Sherrill has served as associate director for IDEaS since its founding in 2016 and as interim director since January 1, 2025. 

“I’m thrilled to see Professor Sherrill tackle this role for the coming 5 years. He understands the rapidly evolving opportunities to apply AI and data science approaches to the diversity of research conducted by Georgia Tech faculty and students, and has a strong agenda to help our researchers make the most of this explosive change in the research landscape.” Said V.P. of Interdisciplinary Research, Julia Kubanek. “He also has deep experience with team building and management which will position IDEaS favorably.”

As executive director, Sherrill will guide IDEaS’ current initiatives, which include the Microsoft CloudHub program that supports innovative applications in Generative Artificial Intelligence, and provide oversight and support for the joint College of Computing / IDEaS Center for Artificial Intelligence in Science and Engineering (ARTISAN), which provides  Georgia Tech faculty and research engineers expert support staff, needed cyberinfrastructure, software resources, and advice to assist faculty with projects using large data sets or using AI and machine learning to drive discovery.

Sherrill will also the lead the launch of a new strategic vision, emphasizing the Georgia Tech research community’s expertise in the development of AI and ML techniques and their application to problems in science and engineering, high performance computing, and academic software. Sherrill will focus on internal and external partnerships at IDEaS, creating new collaborative efforts in areas such as economics, policy, and the arts and humanities. He will also work to strengthen current connections across Georgia Tech’s Colleges, Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs), and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

“It’s a great honor to be named the next executive director of IDEaS,” said Sherrill.  “Georgia Tech has world-class faculty and students, and an unparalleled spirit of collaboration.  By bringing together faculty from across campus and working together with some of the amazing student groups, we can leverage the power of AI to accelerate our research and maximize our impact.  IDEaS will continue to run upskilling workshops to help our campus keep pace with the rapid changes in AI.”

Sherrill is an active promoter of education in computational quantum chemistry, as well as a strong voice for the benefits of open-source software for research acceleration. He was named Outreach Volunteer of the Year by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society in 2017, and he is the lead principal investigator of the Psi open-source quantum chemistry program.

Sherrill earned a B.S. in chemistry from MIT in 1992 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Georgia in 1996. From 1996-1999 Sherril was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sherrill is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society, and the American Physical Society, and he has been Associate Editor of the Journal of Chemical Physics since 2009. Sherrill has received a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry Young Investigator Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and Georgia Tech's W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teacher Award. In 2023, he received the Herty Medal from the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society, and in 2024, he was elected to the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.

- Christa M. Ernst