Scientist of the Semester: Inside view on Dr. Han’s lab on cyber-physical systems and its relation t

Suppose there is a city of the future where everything is connected, and intelligent systems are implemented into society for the greater good. In this city, servers gather data by counting cars and commuters, as well as utilizing wireless signals and sensors. This information is integrated by powerful algorithms to optimize solutions from train lines to disaster management. At their greatest potential, Cyber – Physical Systems can impact society in many ways by using past knowledge to achieve desired outcomes.

One researcher in this field, Dr. Song Han, currently teaches at the University of Connecticut. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Nanjing University in China in 2003, and a Master’s Degree from the University of Hong Kong in 2006. After that, Dr. Han earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas recently in 2012, where he wrote his thesis on Cyber-Physical Systems.

His dedication to research is recognized by the sponsorship of institutions including the National Science Foundation, Texas Instruments, and Microsoft. He regularly attends conferences to give lectures on the work that he does, as well as learn from other professors about their research and their methods of approaching real-world problems. Consequently, this also meant that I needed to find a way to arrange a time to meet with him! Fortunately, I had the amazing opportunity to interview him in the Spring of 2017. I found him to be very welcoming as we made our introductions. As I heard him talking, I could sense a character that I was inspired to learn from and aspiring to be.

What Dr. Han particularly focuses on is the development of Cyber – Physical Systems. These systems network all the sensors within the environment to one or more computers. These sensors give feedback to detect changes from any of these sensors to respond with effective decisions.

One might ask, in what ways are these systems currently applied? On one hand, manufacturing companies optimize their productivity by measuring factors such as temperature and machine performance while queueing orders by dates and importance. Yet Cyber – Physical Systems can also be applied to robotics. Intelligent robots can be understood as systems that are dependent on external information to act on their own will.

Currently, Dr. Han is receiving sponsorship from Microsoft and Amazon to develop a large process control application to run on Microsoft Edge. This application will collect sensory data to be analyzed on a Data Analytical platform.

In addition, he is also jointly working with other faculty from UConn, the City University of Hong Kong, and the Baptist University of Hong Kong to develop SmartMind, aimed to help rehabilitate patients with Alzheimer’s and help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Using Kinect to monitor patients’ movements, SmartMind uses knowledge of the the relationships between daily activities and key household objects, such as sitting down to eat breakfast at a dinner table. It also establishes reminders for the patient to do things throughout the day such as to walk around or to take medication. If a patient falls down and is injured, for example, SmartMind will call for medical assistance. SmartMind pinpoints these emergencies with extreme accuracy by networking the Kinect with other sensory devices throughout the household.

Dr. Han looks forward to continuing his research in the future. As part of this process, he looks for aspiring student researchers of many different academic backgrounds and technical experience. With the guidance of their professor, his students analyze real-world constraints to solve abstract problems as part of their research as they pursue their doctorate degrees.