Center for Health Informatics & Analytics (CHIA)

Director: Premananda Indic, PhD, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Associate Director: Pravitha Ramanand, PhD, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

The Center for Health Informatics & Analytics (CHIA) was established in Fall 2000 with the mission of “Engineering Solutions to Clinical Problems.” The center aims to develop wearable sensor systems and associated machine learning algorithms for the prediction of life-threatening events in humans. East Texas has the highest suicide rate and the second-highest infant mortality rate among all regions in the state.

CHIA focuses on creating AI-based, edge-intelligent wearable sensor systems for:

• Predicting apnea, bradycardia, and hypoxia in preterm infants
• Detecting suicidal ideation in individuals with mental health conditions
• Identifying cravings in individuals with substance use disorders

In addition, CHIA is committed to training high school and college students in emerging technologies at the intersection of engineering and medicine.

CHIA is supported by the UT System STARs Award and grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).