Navid Amini [CV]
Ph.D. Candidate

 
Address:  3256N Boelter Hall UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095
Department:  UCLA Computer Science
E-mail:

navid.amini☺gmail.com amini☺cs.ucla.edu

I am currently working towards a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I received my M.Sc. degree from UCLA in 2010. I also received my B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology in computer engineering in 2007. My research interests are in the area of Wireless Health. I have concentrated my research on underpinnings of wireless health-monitoring systems as complete vertical applications. I have solved problems pertaining to specifications and requirements of these systems, such as on/off-body radio channel characterization, feature extraction, and low power sensing. These problems were posed by the healthcare professionals, who employ these systems in their practice.

Projects:

1- Personalized Ultraviolet Monitoring

This project aims at developing and validating of a wireless and portable embedded device for personalized UV monitoring which is based on a novel software architecture, a high-end UV sensor, and conventional PDA (or a cell phone). In terms of short-term applications, by calculating the UV index, it informs the users about their maximum recommended sun exposure time by taking their skin type and sun protection factor (SPF) of the applied sunscreen into consideration. As for long-term applications, given that the damage caused by UV light is accumulated over days, it displays the amount of UV received over a certain course of time, from a single day to a month.

2- Childhood Obesity Prevention through Wireless Home Automation

We designed a novel childhood obesity prevention system, called No-Pain-No-Game. It is a home automation system intended for reducing the incidence of childhood obesity disease. No-Pain-No-Game is the first wireless system that monitors children's daily activity to decrease the chance of pediatric obesity. The system, in an automatic manner, allows the children to use entertainment appliances, such as TV, depending on the amount of exercise that they have done throughout the day.

3- Smart Shoe (Hermes)

We are quantifing the effect of gait variability as a risk factor for falls by exploiting our smart shoe platform. This wireless system enables long-term continuous monitoring in order to evaluate and enhance the quality of proprioception among the aging population. This new system calculates plantar pressure distribution and acceleration patterns via the wireless signals received respectively from textile-based pressure sensors and inertial sensors (i.e., gyroscopes and accelerometers).

4- Clinical Movement Assessment System (CMAS)

We are developing a movement assessment system to quantify fine motor movements following neuromotor injury. This self-therapy device consists of a clinical hand grip and associated software, which are designed to help healthcare professionals to evaluate and capture current and ongoing muscle and neuromotor functions. The Clinical Movement Assessment System has undergone pilot clinical trials at the Saint Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Clinical Movement Assessment System has proven to benefit the patients incorporating the system into their rehabilitation program to cure neuromuscular disorders and to regain their fine motor movements.

 

Publications:

Journals

  • N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, A. Vahdatpour, W. Xu, "Accelerometer-based on-body sensor localization for health and medical monitoring applications," Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal – Elsevier, Vol. 7, Issue 6, December 2011, pp. 746-760.
  • N. Amini, A. Vahdatpour, F. Dabiri, H. Noshadi, M. Sarrafzadeh, "Joint Consideration of Energy-Efficiency and Coverage-Preservation in Microsensor Networks," Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 6, June 2011, pp. 707-722.
  • N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, "A Wireless Home Automation System for Childhood Obesity Prevention," Bruin innovation & Technology Magazine, pp. 24-33 [Outstanding project award].
  • N. Amini, A. Vahdatpour, W. Xu, M. Sarrafzadeh, "Cluster Size Optimization in Sensor Networks with Decentralized Cluster-Based Protocols," Computer Communications Journal – Elsevier, Volume 35, Issue 2, Jan. 2012, pp. 207-220.
  • H. Noshadi, S. Ahmadian, H. Hagopian, J. Woodbridge, F. Dabiri, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, N. Terrafranca, "HERMES: Mobile System for Instability Analysis and Balance Assessment," In Press, ACM Transactions in Embedded Computing Systems (TECS).
  • [PENDING] W. Xu, F. Gong, N. Amini, "Large Girth Low-Density Parity-Check Codes and Their Improvement Using Kronecker Product," Under second review, International Journal of Communication Systems.
  • [PENDING] W. Xu, M. C. Huang, Z. Li, N. Amini, L. He, M. Sarrafzadeh, "eCushion: Textile Sensor Array Design for Sitting Position Analysis," Under second review, ACM Transactions in Embedded Computing Systems (TECS).

Conferences

  • [PENDING] H. Ghassemzadeh, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, "Power-Aware Feature Extraction in Wearable Cyber Physical Systems," Submitted to 49th Annual Design Automation Conference (DAC 2012).
  • N. Amini, W. Xu, M. Sarrafzadeh, "Experimental Analysis of RF Transmission Characteristics for On/Off body communications," in Proc. of the 22nd IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), Sept. 2011, Toronto, Canada.
  • N. Amini, J. E. Matthews, A. Vahdatpour, M. Sarrafzadeh, “The Design of a Wireless Portable Device for Personalized Ultraviolet Monitoring,” Proc. of 2009 SPIE Nanoscience and Engineering Conference, San Diego, CA, USA, pp. 73970O-73970O-12.
  • A. Vahdatpour, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, “On-body Device Localization for Health and Medical Monitoring Applications,” in Proc. of the IEEE Pervasive Computing and Communication conference (PerCom 2011), Seattle, Washington, pp. 33-39.
  • W. Xu, Z. Li, M. C. Huang, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, “eCushion: An eTextile Device for Sitting Posture Monitoring,” to appear in Proc. of the 8th International Conference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN 2011), Dallas, Tx, May 2011.
  • H. Noshadi, N. Amini, J. Woodbridge, W. Xu, M. Lan, H. Hagopian, N. Terrafranca and M. Sarrafzadeh, “Lightweight Context-Aware Smart Insole for Gait Analysis, Research and Rehabilitation,” Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, Vol. 16, Supp. 1, Feb. 2010, pp. S29.
  • M-C. Hsiao, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, “A Wireless Home Automation System for Childhood Obesity Prevention,” Proc. of the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices (BIODEVICES 2010), Valencia, Spain, Jan. 2010, pp. 75-81.
  • H. Noshadi, S. Ahmadian, H. Hagopian, J. Woodbridge, F. Dabiri, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, N. Terrafranca, “HERMES - Mobile Balance and Instability Assessment System,” Proc. of the International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing (BIOSIGNALS 2010), Valencia, Spain, Jan. 2010, pp. 264-270.
  • A. Vahdatpour, N. Amini, M. Sarrafzadeh, “Toward Unsupervised Activity Discovery Using Multi Dimensional Motif Detection in Time Series,” Proc. of the Twenty-first International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2009, Pasadena, California, pp. 1261-1266.
  • N. Amini, J. Matthews, F. Dabiri, A. Vahdatpour, H. Noshadi, M. Sarrafzadeh, “A Wireless Embedded Device for Personalized Ultraviolet Monitoring,” Proc. of the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices (BIODEVICES 2009), Porto, Portugal, Jan. 2009, pp. 200-205.
  • N. Amini, M. Rofouei, W. J. Kaiser, M. Sarrafzadeh, “Energy-Aware Heart Rate Monitoring During Stair Climbing,” Proc. of 2008 UC Bioengineering Symposium, Riverside, CA, USA, June 2008, pp. 125.
  • F. Dabiri, N. Amini, M. Rofouei and M. Sarrafzadeh, “Reliability-Aware Optimization for DVS-Enabled Real-Time Embedded Systems,” Proc. of 9th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design, (ISQED), San Jose, CA, USA, March 2008, pp. 780-783.
  • N. Amini, M. Fazeli, S. G. Miremadi, M. T. Manzuri, “Distance-Based Segmentation: An Energy-Efficient C lustering Hierarchy for Wireless Microsensor Networks,” Proc. of the 5th Annual Conference on Communication Networks and Services Research, Fredericton, Canada, May 2007, pp. 18-25.
  • N. Amini, S. G. Miremadi, M. Fazeli, “A Hierarchical Routing Protocol for Energy Load Balancing in Wireless Sensor Networks”, Proc. of 20th IEEE Annual Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vancouver, Canada, Apr. 2007, pp. 1086-1089.

Patents:

  • "Exercise Based Entertainment Controller", Provisional Patent, Navid Amini, Majid Sarrafzadeh, UCLA Case No. 2009-496-1; Serial Number 61/467,744.
  • "Method of Assessing Human Fall Risk Using Mobile Systems", Submitted patent, Majid Sarrafzadeh, Nicholas A. Terrafranca JR., Hyduke Noshadi, Shaun Ahmadian, Hagop Hagopian, Jonathan Woodbridge, Navid Amini, Wenyao Xu, Mars Lan, UCLA Case No. 2009-383-2, Serial Number 61/222,900, International Patent Application Serial Number, PCT/US2010/40431.

 

Thanks to Evrim Acar and Tamara G. Kolda for the web page template.