TAMPA, Fla. — A recent USF grad could soon revolutionize the way your health data is collected, whether it’s for a sleep study, monitoring after surgery, or just for your own information.

What You Need To Know

  • Nirmita Roy just graduated from USF with her PhD on Dec. 13, and she is already well on her way to making a name for herself in the world of electrochemistry

  • She is now working for the university on a research team that is developing a way to collect vital health information through fabric

  • Roy is part of a team of researchers at USF who created a way to integrate flexible, lightweight microchip technology into fabric through copper printing

She is now working for the university on a research team that is developing a way to collect vital health information through fabric.

Nirmita Roy just graduated from USF with her PhD on Dec. 13, and she is already well on her way to making a name for herself in the world of electrochemistry.

“This is something nobody has thought of. It’s literally a $13-billion industry right now,” she said.

Imagine wearing a T-shirt in place of your Apple watch, or Oura ring, to measure and monitor your sleep. That’s the technology Nirmita hopes to make mainstream.

“The idea behind eliminating all these wires and making fabric conductive was the main goal behind it so astronauts could have non-bulky suits, we could sleep in a normal t-shirt but also send data to our doctors. So that was the big idea, which is what we achieved, but on a small scale,” she said.

She has worked with a team of researchers here at USF, creating a way to integrate flexible, lightweight microchip technology into fabric through copper printing.

“We basically grow copper on it and let it dry, and once it’s dried it’s waterproof, sweat proof, you can iron it, and nothing ever happens to that copper,” she said.

Roy says she’s spent about three years perfecting the process, and the research team’s next step is to automate the process.

“The fact that we want to integrate it into fabrics was something not too many people have come up, so it really feels, I’m proud to be a part of this bigger dream that we hope to see come to reality soon,” she said.

She says soon, she’s looking forward to celebrating her achievements all while tracking her heart rate, or her sleep, wearing something as simple as a T-shirt. 

Roy joined USF’s Department of Electrical Engineering as an adjunct professor right after graduation. She hopes to continue on teaching and researching electrochemistry.