Two CSAIL researchers were named to Forbes magazine's fourth-annual "30 under 30" list, which honors today's "greatest gathering of young game changers, movers and makers."
Graduate student Fadel Adib was recognized for his contributions in Dina Katabi's Networks@MIT group that created WiTrack, a spin on Wi-Fi that uses a radio signal - just 1 percent as strong as Wi-Fi and 0.1 percent of your smartphone’s signal - to track movements with incredible accuracy.
The team's latest iteration demonstrates that they can now detect gestures as subtle as the rise and fall of a person’s chest, which allows them to determine a person's heart rate with 99 percent accuracy. The research has potential applications with health-tracking apps, baby monitors, and military and law enforcement purposes.
Recent PhD graduate Jenna Wiens was honored for using machine-learning techniques to develop risk models aimed at reducing the rate of health-care-associate infections, which contribute to nearly 100,000 deaths every year. Her work in this field has continued from his dissertation at CSAIL to her current position as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
Wiens has also developed methods for the automated interpretation of electrocardiograms, in an effort to reduce the data-overload physicians face everyday. In addition to her work in data-driven medicine, she has written basketball-themed research articles on everything from offensive rebounding to the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll.