Wireless systems for wearable computing holds a number of advantages over wired alternatives, including: ease of use, reduced risk of failure, flexibility, enhanced mobility, and lower cost. Typically, applications demand expertise in multiple disciplines, varying from analog sensors to digital processing cores, suggesting opportunities for extensive hardware integration.

An examination of wireless technologies for these applications reveals two sets of challenges: those associated with the deployment of a new technology in the medical field and those associated with technical implementation. The short course deals mostly with the hardware design issues related to technical implementation.

The technical challenges inherent in the design of a wireless medical system depend on the intended application. Devices in vivo may have limited processing and memory capabilities, demanding simpler communication protocols. Systems must be highly integrated to minimize implant size and weight. Sources of power can be either inductive or battery based; in the latter case, maximum lifetime is required to avoid the additional cost, risk, and patient trauma inherent in replacement surgical procedures.

Applications in vitro, while less restrictive, still demand low power consumption. In addition, in vitro technologies suffer exposure to problems such as interference and noise. As continuous data transmission is often required for sensing and telemetry, more complicated network protocols including packet receipt acknowledgement, redundant coverage, and frequency hopping are needed to minimize dropout rate.

Krzysztof (Kris) Iniewski is an Associate Professor at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering Department of University of Alberta . His interests are in advanced CMOS devices, high-speed and RF circuits for wireless applications. His research program in wearable computing is to build “smart dust”, ultra low power ICs to be used in medical applications, wearable electronics and ad-hoc sensors networks.

In addition to his academic duties, Dr. Iniewski is a founder and president of SilicoMOS, a consulting firm in Vancouver , Canada and serves as an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver , University of British Columbia (UBC), and University of Calgary . He is also an adjunct scientist at TRLabs in Edmonton . He has over 15 years of technical experience in semiconductor and communication IC industry.

From 1995 to 2003, he was with PMC-Sierra and held various technical and management positions in Research & Development. Prior to joining PMC-Sierra, from 1990 to 1994 he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto 's Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering department.

Dr. Iniewski has published over 80 research papers in international journals and conferences. He holds 18 international patents granted in USA , Canada , France , Germany , and Japan . In 1988 he received his Ph.D. degree in electronics (honours) from the Warsaw University of Technology ( Warsaw , Poland ).

Dr. Iniewski has been recently working with Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (CMC) on establishing a collaboration framework with international links for coordinated university research access to advanced technologies such as sub-100nm CMOS.