2018Health4
| Ref. 2018Health4 | On-line application form |
| Supervisor name and surname: José García Moros | Supervisor mail: |
Title of the research project: Smart and supportive coach for exercise promotion in people with overweight (exerCoach) | |
Description of the research project: The main objective is to develop a personalized, supportive and smart coach for exercise promotion (exerCoach) focused on people suffering from overweight or obesity problems. The overarching idea is to support people by intelligently boosting everyday devices that they already use (mirror, smartphone, smartTV, etc.), integrate them into exerCoach ecosystem and using messaging platforms (e.g. whatsapp) to communicate exerCoach with people. exerCoach will be connected to other peoples’ coaches to open up the possibility for interacting with, comparing to, and learning from others using Machine Learning techniques. exerCoach will be grounded on a secure and private microservices software architecture where people’s related information will be integrated by using HL7 FHIR medical information standards to build an interoperable Personal Health Record (PHR). exerCoach will go beyond the state of the art building a supportive ecosystem of devices that will provide feedback and supervision during exercise, analyzing performance and people’s progression. This project aligns perfectly with the objectives of the Health?Tech Action Plan of Campus Iberus and specifically inside the Exer?Health Action Group which main scientific challenge is “to promote health and well?being throughout life through physical activity”. The project will be developed in the CeNIT (Communications Networks and Information Technologies) group, and the department of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering at the Public University of Navarra and in collaboration for external training with the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and Pulsar Inara company. The following hypothetical scenario may illustrate exerCoach potential: John is a 56 year?old male who works in an office where he sits at his desk most of the day. John is overweight and troubled with recurring back pains and is motivated and wants to exercise more, even has started exercise programs but after a while forgets performing the exercises. His doctor tells John about the new exerCoach program, where a smart assistant takes on a role similar to a human coach. exerCoach periodically reminds John to do the exercises and evaluates the effectiveness of the exercises using motion and pattern detection on data from sensor technology easily installed at home as well as boosts existing devices adapted to his environment and condition: a weight?scale, a smartMirror, the accelerometer in the smartphone, etc. exerCoach uses messaging platforms that John knows well to provide feedback that helps him to keep motivated, tracks his progress and shares experiences with other people using exerCoach. To help John with his back pain, exerCoach projects the exercises on the mirror, enabling John to compare the ideal exercise with what he actually does, providing quantified feedback. It also enrolls John in a walking program, where John is joining a walking group in his surrounding area to keep fit in an entertained way. Relevant clinical information is stored on a standard format to be integrated in John’s PHR. After two months of using exerCoach, John has lost 5 kilograms and quite remarkably, thanks to corrections of exerCoach in the mirror training, his back pain has significantly reduced. John is now committed and engaged with exerCoach training. | |
PHD Programme: Biomedical Engineering (Ingeniería Biomédica) University of Zaragoza | |
Supervisor short biography: José García was born in Zaragoza (Spain) in 1971. In 1994 he received the degree in Physics and in 1998 the title of PhD (Excellent “Cum Laude” and Honors Doctorate) within the doctoral program in Communications Technology and Telematics. In 1999 he started in the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering where he holds a position of Full Professor. He has performed research stays in the US, Sweden and Austria. His research interests focus on issues related to biomedical engineering (field of e?Health) and telematics engineering (encoding, transmission, management, security and quality of service). He has published over 50 international journal papers and more than 160 conference proceedings. Coordinator of the CeNIT research group in the Institute of Engineering Research of Aragon (I3A). He has coordinated or participated in over 50 research projects (public and private funding) and has advised 7 PhD thesis. From 2009 to 2013 was the Head of the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, and from 2011 to 2017 was member of the Grade Studies Commission in the UZ. | |
Gross annual salary: 22.000-26.000 € | |
Working hours: | Dedication: |