Husker engineers work to commercialize wearable health monitoring device

A University of Nebraska­–Lincoln research team is another step closer to bringing to market a game-changing monitoring device that could streamline the day-to-day work of medical professionals and boost the mobility and independence of a variety of patient populations.

Husker engineers Mona Bavarian and Alyssa Grube envision a wearable, flexible wristband that continuously monitors crucial vital signs — heart rate, blood oxygen content and temperature — during surgical procedures. The research team is bringing the device closer to reality through participation in the prestigious National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program, an entrepreneurship training initiative aimed at translating technologies from the lab to the marketplace.

Since its inception in 2012, the NSF I-Corps program has trained more than 2,500 teams. More than half of those teams — nearly 1,400 — have launched startups, which together have raised $3.6 billion in subsequent funding. Bavarian and Grube were selected for the winter 2025 cohort, which will complete training by the end of February.

Through the program, Bavarian and Grube are conducting 100 customer discovery interviews — conversations with prospective customers and stakeholders focused on their needs and the challenges they face.

Those interviews have helped the duo refine their idea for the wearable monitoring device, which would be powered by an innovative wool-based supercapacitor alongside a conventional battery. Talking directly to potential users has illuminated the issues faced by medical professionals and patients related to monitoring vital signs — and how to build a device that fills those gaps. 

“One of the most helpful aspects of I-Corps is learning what we don’t know,” said Grube, a graduate student in chemical and biomolecular engineering who serves as the project’s entrepreneurial lead. “You don’t want to develop a product that solves a problem but is a bad design for the people who actually use it, or is not allowable in a health care setting, for example.” 

Grube’s mentor is Bavarian, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, who is the project’s technical lead. Also on the team is Ed Dvorak, a business executive with expertise in consumer products and sports technology industries. He serves as an industry mentor for the team. 

The technology stemmed from Grube’s graduate work focused on textile-based supercapacitors — battery-like devices capable of providing rapid energy surges. When used in tandem with batteries, supercapacitors can lengthen the operating life of a device by providing the quick bursts of energy that would quickly damage a typical battery. Researchers have been increasingly focused on designing textile-based supercapacitors for use in smart textiles. Because they are made of yarns like cotton, nylon and polyester, textile supercapacitors are lightweight, flexible, portable and washable — characteristics ideal for wearable devices.   

Grube noticed that wool — a widely accessible, biodegradable and cost-efficient yarn — had not yet been used in a supercapacitor. They devised a method for threading electronic circuitry made of MXenes, a class of materials with high electrical conductivity, into the wool. The process yielded less textile pollution than a cotton-based approach. Grube then conducted extensive testing demonstrating the wool-based supercapacitor’s structural integrity with and without mechanical strain like stretching and twisting — crucial for a successful wearable device.

Ultimately, Grube found that the wool-based supercapacitors’ performance was similar to that of the cotton-based devices. Grube and Bavarian then began exploring how to translate the work to real-life problems in the medical world. 

The device they are designing is aimed at medical practitioners who need to continuously and accurately monitor patients’ vital signs — such as surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and technicians in post-anesthesia care units. For these professionals, major sources of day-to-day frustration are bulky monitoring devices that require wired connections. Attaching and detaching these wires requires time and labor and interrupts continuous monitoring. Current devices are also relatively large, taking up valuable storage space in hospitals.

Grube and Bavarian’s tool would solve these problems. The wristband would wirelessly transmit data and alarms, and a sleek design would allow for compact storage. 

Grube first explored the device’s commercial viability in 2023 through the Nebraska I-Corps: Introduction to Customer Discovery program, the university’s campus entrepreneurship training initiative led by NUtech Ventures. The local program helped Grube develop the ground-level skills necessary for commercializing technology — networking and making cold calls, for example — and conduct the initial five customer discovery interviews.

“Nebraska I-Corps is an excellent first step for any team considering NSF’s national I-Corps Teams program,” said Joy Eakin, entrepreneurship program manager at NUtech and lead instructor for Nebraska I-Corps. “Our program helps demystify some early-stage entrepreneurial concepts such as the Business Model Canvas, understanding your market and the process of engaging with stakeholders — all key concepts upon which NSF’s national program is founded.” 

Building on that momentum, Grube then conducted an additional 27 interviews through the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub’s regional customer discovery program. Now, as the team completes their interviews through the national program, the researchers have developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of innovating in the medical space. 

“We’ve been learning how overall medical systems and hospital systems work and different aspects to consider,” Grube said. “The hospital system is concerned about patient security and patient outcomes, for example.”

Bavarian said the team is also gleaning important information about specific patient populations that stand to benefit from wearable monitors. People with disabilities, older adults and pediatric patients, especially those in neonatal intensive care units, would significantly benefit from devices that are comfortable and unobtrusive. The technology could also be groundbreaking for people whose enhanced mobility would improve outcomes — such as patients in labor and delivery and patients recovering from certain orthopedic surgeries.

“We really hope we will be able to bring some customized technologies for specific groups of people based on their needs,” Bavarian said. “We are currently trying to understand these specific needs — especially sensory issues of some patients and the specific needs in the NICU.”

After the I-Corps program concludes, Grube will build a prototype of the device, which eventually may be used outside the medical sphere. The team predicts it could be useful for monitoring in athletics, natural disaster response and military efforts.