Miad Faezipour, an associate professor in Purdue Polytechnic's School of Engineering Technology, was recently featured in the Lafayette Journal & Courier for her work developing a “smart pacifier,” a high-tech solution for monitoring infant health.
Supported by a $1.19 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Faezipour is leading the development of a device designed to analyze a baby's breathing patterns to detect respiratory problems early. The project aims to provide a non-invasive monitoring tool that can be used in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) or at home, eliminating the need for uncomfortable wires and sensors.
"It's always possible to ask an adult or an older child to breathe into a device to be able to capture certain things like lung function... but it's not possible for babies," Faezipour told the Journal & Courier.
The technology works by emitting sound waves into the infant's airway and using a tiny embedded microphone to record the echoes. An AI model, currently being trained by Faezipour and her team using adult breathing data, will analyze these sounds to identify complications such as pneumonia or respiratory distress.
Shiva Shokouhmand, a doctoral student and research assistant on the project, emphasized the importance of patient comfort. "I want to understand more about devices and how we can make it more comfortable and more accurate for patients," she said.
The project is a collaboration with Smriti Bhatt, a Purdue Polytechnic co-investigator, and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The team plans to continue developing the sensor technology and AI models over the next two years, with infant trials projected to begin in late 2027.
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