Abstract: The need for reliable, continuous monitoring of vital signs has become a key driver in advancing modern digital healthcare technologies. Among these, monitoring oxygenation and ventilation is essential for assessing both respiratory and metabolic health. Noninvasive monitoring of blood oxygen and carbon dioxide pressures, in particular, offers an alternative to the invasive gold standard methods traditionally used in clinical settings. While recent developments in wearable medical technology have enabled the monitoring of vital respiration parameters such as respiration rate and blood oxygen saturation, these represent only a subset of the critical measures required for comprehensive respiratory and metabolic health care. Blood oxygen and carbon dioxide partial pressures, key indicators of ventilation efficiency and metabolic function, are of great clinical significance and hold the potential to be monitored noninvasively. Noninvasive, wearable monitors for these parameters could revolutionize patient care, reducing dependence on invasive procedures and enabling more freedom for patients outside hospital settings. This talk focuses on recent progress in developing, noninvasive, wearable CO₂ monitoring systems. The presentation will discuss emerging sensing principles, particularly luminescencebased and transcutaneous techniques, designed to achieve reliable, real-time measurement of the partial pressure of CO₂, as well as the engineering and physiological cha lenges that arise in translating these technologies to compact, patient-friendly wearable devices.
Bio: Ulkuhan Guler is an associate professor of ECE and director of the Integrated Circuits and Systems (ICAS) Laboratory at WPI, MA, USA. She completed her sabbatical at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during the 2024–2025 academic year and continues to serve as a visiting scientist at MIT. Before joining WPI in 2018, Dr. Guler was a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, USA. She received her B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey; her M.E. degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; and her Ph.D. degree from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. She leads a research lab at WPI focused on developing innovative technologies for miniaturized biomedical devices that bridge engineering and medicine to advance continuous health monitoring and personalized medicine. Her research spans low-power circuit design for wearable and implantable medical devices, including neural interfaces, noninvasive transcutaneous oxygen and carbon dioxide monitoring. She specializes in analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, with expertise in sensing interfaces, energy harvesting, and wireless power transmission for biomedical and IoT applications, as well as security solutions for healthcare systems. She is the recipient of the 2022 NSF CAREER award and the 2020 Interstellar Initiative Young Investigator award. She is among the cohort of 2026 Health Innovators named by Boston Business Journal. She is a senior member of IEEE. She serves as an associate editor for several IEEE journals, including IEEE SSC-L, IEEE TBioCAS, and IEEE TCAS: II. Dr. Guler co-authored three book chapters. She also serves as the technical program committee chair for CICC 2026, a steering
committee member for the IEEE CICC, and a TPC member for the IEEE BioCAS conferences. In addition, she is a member of several IEEE societies, including solid-state circuits (SSCS), circuits and systems (CAS), and biomedical engineering (EMBS), and the Women in Circuits Committee.
The seminar will also be broadcast via Zoom.
Zoom Meeting ID: 986 2831 6686
Passcode: eceseminar