CM Seminar: Edward Wang, “Inventing a New Blood Pressure Monitor”
Presented by: Edward Wang
Description: “What does it actually look like to invent something? In this talk, I trace the decade-long journey of turning a smartphone into a blood pressure monitor, from Seismo, which used smartphone accelerometers to measure pulse transit time, to BPClip, a dollar clip that brought calibration-free oscillometry to the fingertip, to VibroBP, which eliminated the attachment entirely using the phone’s vibration motor. Each project was born from the limitations of the last. And each time we thought we’d solved the problem, new layers of unknowns appeared around usability, manufacturing, and FDA classification. This is a talk about what inventing looks like when you zoom in past the papers and patents. Less about creating something new, and more about finding the unknowns between a need and its solution, and creatively working through them, one by one.”
Bio: Dr. Edward J. Wang is the Jacobs Faculty Chair in Entrepreneurship Associate Professor of Design and Electrical & Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, where he directs the Digital Health Technologies Lab. His research explores practical solutions to address real-world medical needs drawn from collaborations with clinicians and world health organizations, but solved using new and creative insights that leverage state-of-the-art applied machine learning, embedded systems, and mobile sensors. He has been named an NAI Senior Member, NIH Trailblazer, Norman Design Laureate, and Google Research Scholar. He publishes in premier computer science and health science venues including ACM IMWUT, CHI, UIST, Nature Publishing, Frontiers in Digital Health, and JMIR, having been awarded 9 best paper awards. He actively engages in the translation of research through faculty entrepreneurship. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and his B.S. from Harvey Mudd College.
Hosted by: Professor Christina Chung
When: Monday, April 27, 2026 from 12:30PM to 1:30PM
Location:
IN-PERSON @ SVC 3212.
Viewing room @ UCSC Main Campus, E2-280.
LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED AT BOTH LOCATIONS! Faculty and students are highly encouraged to attend.
Zoom info:
https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/91516487260?pwd=6qaylO1FY0XjYHIrFnxJqCikmypxam.1
Meeting ID: 915 1648 7260
Passcode: 086900