Home Department: Undeclared
Mentor: Zhenan Bao (Chemical Engineering)

"Development of Unobtrusive Wearable Strain Sensor for Long-Term and Continuous Lactation Volume Monitoring"

Maternal health monitoring increasingly relies on untethered technologies for continuous, real-time physiological data collection. However, reliable breast health assessment, particularly quantitative lactation volume monitoring, remains an unmet clinical need. Resistive strain sensors suffer from baseline drift and limited long-term stability, hindering detection of subtle physiological changes during lactation refill cycles. This project aims to develop a capacitive strain sensor for long-term, continuous breast volume monitoring. Using soft, skin-conformable materials, the device maintains a stable baseline while remaining unobtrusive and garment-integrated. This work advances translational postpartum maternal healthcare by enabling personalized, clinically actionable lactation monitoring and supportive care for new mothers.