Vision and Mission Statements:

NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST) focuses on creating self-powered sensing, computing, and communication systems to enable data-driven insights for a smart and healthy world. ASSIST envisions self-powered wearables that deliver integrated health and exposure monitoring, offering actionable insights for users and their healthcare providers.

ASSIST’s mission is to develop leading-edge systems for high-value applications such as healthcare and Internet of Things (IOT) by integrating fundamental advances in energy harvesting, low-power electronics, and sensors with a focus on usability and actionable data. ASSIST does this by bringing together multidisciplinary researchers, practitioners, and industry partners in a diverse and inclusive ecosystem that encourages innovation with a focus on education and outreach.

ASSIST was established by a consortium of faculty and researchers from NC State University, Penn State University, University of Virginia, Florida International University, University of Michigan, University of Utah and University of Texas at Austin.

Intellectual Merit Outcomes:

ASSIST demonstrated two testbeds (Health and Exposure Tracker and Self-Powered Adaptable Platform) to transform health informatics, electronics, and biomedical engineering by empowering personal health and environmental monitoring through developing nanotechnologies for energy harvesting, battery-free energy storage, and ultra-low-power computation/communication, and integrating low power physiological and environmental nano-sensors using biocompatible materials.

The Center developed several new technologies, some up to mid TRL (Technology Readiness Level), in diverse health applications, including asthma, vigilant cardiac monitoring, diet management, wound monitoring/ healing, medication adherence, aging, Alzheimer’s disease/Dementia, sleep and stress monitoring as well as cough, speech, gait and fall detection. 10+ Institutional Review Board approved preclinical studies demonstrated the potential of ASSIST wearables. To-date, there have been 90+ inventions disclosed, 50+ patents filed, and 20+ patents granted.

The innovation productivity remains strong with 10 spin-off companies launched by ASSIST faculty and students, with additional licenses issued to 3 outside companies. One of these startups has raised $150M+ to-date (post money valuation up to $500M+).

Broader Impact Outcomes:

Over its lifetime, ASSIST graduated 100+ undergraduates, 30+ master’s and 100+ doctoral students. Approximately 40% of the graduates have gone on to industry careers, many of them making significant contributions in ASSIST-related fields at major companies. ASSIST’s pre-college education programs included the Wearable Device Challenge (WDC), Young Scholars, Research Experience for Teachers & Young Scholars programs, as well as summer camps for middle/high schoolers. To-date, the Center sponsored 40+ Capstone/Senior Design projects, 110+ REUs, and 500+ WDC participants. ASSIST demonstrated a growing educational pipeline with students, participating in the WDC, joining our Young Scholar Programs, then coming back as REU students and continuing to graduate studies.

The multidisciplinary minor program in Nanoscience and Technology at NC State University was launched during the Center’s third year and has remained active since. ASSIST educators introduced 20+ new courses based on ASSIST content, including one course available on NanoHub. ASSIST faculty authored 10+ textbooks or book chapters. The faculty members continued to excel in research and teaching and have won several teaching awards.

ASSIST continued to enhance value for the innovation ecosystem through organizing semi-annual industry days, workshops (e.g. on implantable electronics), symposia (e.g., on energy harvesting), conferences (e.g., molecular recognition), industry-centric training, and weekly seminars, as well as promoting key research summaries through annual Research Portfolio publications publicly available online. ASSIST worked with 100+ industry members and partners to-date and continues to grow its network.

Post NSF Sustainability Direction:

ASSIST has leveraged the momentum built under NSF funding to continue to advance research in diagnostic and therapeutic devices, through deploying outreach to recruit new faculty and researchers to the Center, using the ERC outcomes as preliminary data to apply for large grants with these researchers from recently established federal agencies with a focus on translation to the field (e.g., NSF TIP Directorate, IARPA, ARPA-H), strengthening the industry program even further towards self-sufficiency, and expanding into new markets and application space through establishing a new Institute at NC State University (Institute of Connected Sensor Systems (IConS)). ASSIST Physiological Assessment Lab and Prototyping Facility also serve industry members and academic community. 

Since graduation from NSF, ASSIST has engaged and pursued hundreds of large companies, start-ups, and organizations, in the MedTech, AI, Textiles and Photonics areas, among others, for potential collaborations. ASSIST has also built partnerships with incubators, investors as well as other research organizations. Using membership funds, ASSIST continues to offer seed grants for proposals, selected with Industry Advisory Board inputs, to fuel even more funding from federal and industry funding resources.

For a collective brainstorming on ERC sustainability, ASSIST organized an ERC-Wide Workshop in 2024, with participation from all ERCs to engage and share information about their use-inspired and translational research activities, as well as learn about relevant programs, at NSF especially under the TIP Directorate, for post-graduation sustainability. The Workshop Report is available on the ASSIST website.

Last Modified: 11/14/2024
Modified by: Alper Bozkurt