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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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. (more…)

— 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.  (more…)

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.

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