Professors Byunghoo Jung and Babak Ziaie have been awarded the 2014 Multi-Year Project Award from the Catalyst Foundation for their project: "Urine-Powered Wireless Urinary Tract Infection Monitoring Sensor For Smart Diaper Platform." This prestigious award was only given to Purdue and Harvard Universities.

The Catalyst Foundation's goal is to contribute to the fusion of scientific and engineering research. To provide a concrete paradigm, it fosters university cross-disciplinary research projects in which at least one discipline is related to analog or mixed analog-digital integrated circuit design and analysis. Preference is given to projects that help diffuse such work geographically. The research support provided by the Foundation is in the form of grants.

Abstract: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the second most common infection in the body accounting for more than 7 million office visits and 100,000 hospitalizations per year. UTI can be a major source of morbidity and mortality in geriatric patients in particular those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. Also UTI causes 51 per 100,000 children to be hospitalized annually and 174 per 100,000 infants to be hospitalized annually. Many of the disabled elderly, young children, and infants are not capable of understanding symptoms of a UTI, and many that are capable have difficulty communicating this to caregivers. Early identification and treatment of UTIs is vital to prevent major sequelae or death. The goal of the project is to develop a wearable self-powered wireless sensor for autonomously screen for UTI, and improve the quality of life of elderly, young children, infants, and those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.