Featured News
UNM Study Gauges Effectiveness of Light Therapy to Reshape Circadian Rhythms
University of New Mexico researchers and their colleagues from the LESA Center have demonstrated a new technology for gauging the effectiveness of light therapy to synchronize human circadian rhythms as a potential treatment for insomnia, mood disorders and other health problems. In a report published online in the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine (and set to lead the journal’s December issue), the team reported on a pilot study using the Smart Lighting Clinical Testbed at UNM Hospital. The lighting, sensing and control systems used were based on a system first installed in the Smart Conference Room Testbed at the LESA Center.
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Visiting Scholar Joins LESA Plant Science Team
The LESA Center is pleased to welcome visiting scholar Dr. Jurga Miliauskiene. Miliauskiene is the Chief Researcher at the Institute of Horticulture at the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry. She is joining the Plant Science team for two months working alongside Sr. Plant Scientist Elsebeth Kolmos. […]
Solutions to the Camera Conundrum in Healthcare Using ‘Indoor LIDAR’ for Improved Patient Safety and Protection
— A small network of low cost non-imaging sensors enhances critical patient monitoring without the invasiveness of cameras. —
(Troy, New York) Health and wellness care facilities often struggle to balance trade-offs between affordable, necessary patient monitoring and patient privacy. Camera surveillance, though useful in many situations, is not always the best option for monitoring occupants in a facility where preserving privacy is also an important function. Researchers at LESA (the Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) are solving the camera conundrum in healthcare settings by demonstrating how a small network of low cost time-of-flight sensors use the speed of light to measure distances. […]
New Senior Research Scientist Joins LESA Center’s Plant Science Team
The LESA Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Elsebeth Kolmos to the Plant Science team. Her research interests and expertise are in Plant-Environmental Interactions, Molecular Biology, Genomics, Plant Biology, Plant Physiology, and Plant Circadian Function.
New Horticulture Light Modules Accelerate Indoor Plant-Growth Research
— LESA and GLASE are taking the guesswork out of tunable irradiant growth efficacy research for indoor farming–
New lighting modules being developed at the Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA) Center in collaboration with the Greenhouse Lighting & Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium show real promise for advanced control over the spectral distribution of color-mixing lights for horticulture research.
Accolades
LESA Research Published in HDIAC Journal for Work in Circadian Rhythm Regulation
Drs. Agung Julius and John T. Wen, and PhD student researcher Jaiwei Yin from Wen’s Research Group published in the Journal of the Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC) Volume: 6 Number: 3 – Biometric Nanosponges as a Broad-Spectrum Countermeasure to Biological Threats for their work on “Optimization of Lighting and Sleep Schedules for Circadian Rhythm Regulation.”
LESA Visiting Scholar’s Work Referenced in Horticultural Lighting Newsletter
Cheif Researcher Jurga Miliauskiene from the Institute of Horticulture at the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry was mentioned in the November issue of LEDs Horticultral Lighting monthly newsletter for the research work she recently completed at LESA. Miliauskiene’s work on the effects of pulsed lighting for CEA qulaity-crop production, was the subject of a recent guest blog for LEDs Magazine as well. […]
New publication on Lighting in Health from LESA Faculty Researchers in Biomedical Signal Processing and Control
Drs. Agung Julias and John Wen‘s methodological approach to assess circadian processes in subjects who have recently experienced traumatic brain injury, using regularly gathered intracranial temperature data. The health effects of circadian regulation are profound, yet assessments of circadian processes are often infeasible in the neurotrauma intensive care unit (ICU).
LESA Center Cited in Horticulture Daily for Advanced Research Modules
Lighting research consortium brings the CEA community industry-ready technologies. Without light, plants can’t grow. The continued advance of controlled environment agriculture means that sunlight is often supplemented and in some cases completely replaced by artificial lighting. It works well, but there’s one caveat: artificial lighting can take a lot of energy. Reason enough for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to kickstart the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium with $5 million in funding in 2017.
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Annual Industry-Academia Days
Save the Days: April 1 – 2, 2020.
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