How engineers can help doctors save lives | C. Nataraj | TEDxVillanovaU

Conventional medical diagnostics isn’t working and needs help. The reasons are: the human body is a very complex dynamic system, there is a lot of diversity among humans, and it is difficult to define ‘normal’. But, this where we engineers can come to the rescue! Physics, mathematics and computer algorithms can be used effectively and intelligently to make this situation a whole lot better, and prevent millions of missed diagnoses, unnecessary treatments and deaths. This talk will discuss these ideas and share results from our research in which we are collaborating with doctors to study a mysterious neurological damage that happens in neonates.

Dr. C. Nataraj (Nat) is the Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Moritz, Sr., Endowed Professor in Engineered Systems and the Director of Villanova Center for Analytics of Dynamic Systems at Villanova University. Nat has been Chair of Mechanical Engineering, and the founding Director of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics & Control. He has taught 23 courses, published a book and about 200 papers in dynamic systems, and serves on the editorial board of several journals. He has received funding from ONR, DARPA, NSF and NIH. Nat has been a Lindback Award finalist and is the winner of the Villanova Outstanding Research Award.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx