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The Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation has announced three recipients of the center’s 2025 Pilot Grants.

As part of the center’s mission to promote healthcare innovation, Pilot Grants are awarded annually to UMass faculty teams that use collaborative, interdisciplinary nurse-engineer research to discover and fill gaps in effective healthcare products and processes.

This year, three year-long pilot projects that address topics that highlight the unique contributions of nursing and engineering teams were awarded. The projects focus on the unpredictable factors of nurse stress, early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias detection, and the true geography of food affordability and accessibility – a joint, multi-center funded effort to map and improve access to nutritious food across Massachusetts.

2025 Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation Pilot Grant Projects

“Improving Workforce Planning and Patient Safety: Addressing Unpredictable Factors to Support Nurse Well‑Being”

Joohyun Chung (Elaine Marieb College of Nursing), Joyita Dutta (Biomedical Engineering), Ellen Benjamin (UMass Boston), Sarah Romain (Baystate Medical Center), Cidalia Vital (Elaine Marieb College of Nursing) and Connie Blake (Baystate Medical Center) are teaming with frontline nurses to capture the hidden stressors that arise in everyday clinical practice. Over a two‑ to three‑week period, 13 nurses at Baystate will wear lightweight sensors that log physical activity, heart‑rate variability and fatigue markers, while two observers record fluctuating patient volumes and staffing levels. Pre‑ and post‑shift surveys and time‑series interviews will enrich the sensor data, helping the team pinpoint moments—like sudden surges in acuity or unexpected code blues—that drive unpredictability in nursing workloads. By translating these real‑time insights into evidence‑based staffing recommendations and scheduling policies, the project aims to foster healthier work environments, reduce burnout, and ultimately boost both nurse well‑being and patient safety.
 

“Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias (ADRD) Using AI‑Based Facial and Motion Image Processing”

Yeonsik Noh (Electrical & Computer Engineering & Elaine Marieb College of Nursing), Xian Du (Mechanical & Industrial Engineering), Michael Lepore (Elaine Marieb College of Nursing) and Cidalia Vital (Elaine Marieb College of Nursing) are developing an affordable, non-invasive screening tool to catch ADRD in its earliest stages. Drawing on everyday video and image feeds, their AI algorithms will analyze subtle changes in facial expressions and gait that often precede clinical diagnosis. By integrating wearable sensing units, a smartphone app and cloud analytics, the team will build a digital platform capable of continuous, at‑home monitoring—enabling patients, caregivers and clinicians to detect cognitive and motor declines far sooner than current questionnaire‑ or imaging‑based methods allow. Early identification promises more effective therapies, improved quality of life and reduced healthcare costs for the 46 million people worldwide affected by dementia.
 

“How Far for Fresh Food? Mapping Food Affordability & Accessibility in Massachusetts - Joint Funded with Institute of Diversity Sciences (IDS)”

Qian Zhao (Mathematics & Statistics), Chaitra Gopalappa (Mechanical & Industrial Engineering), Eleni Christofa (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Kalpana Poudel‑Tandukar (Elaine Marieb College of Nursing) lead a multidisciplinary effort to reveal the true landscape of food access across the commonwealth. Moving beyond “food desert” maps, the team will fuse retailer pricing data, public transit networks and household income metrics into a geospatial model that quantifies which communities can realistically reach and afford healthy foods. Complementing these hard data, interviews with residents, community groups and policymakers will surface systemic barriers—like unreliable bus schedules or prohibitive price markups—that statistics alone miss. Through this blend of quantitative mapping and qualitative insight, the project will inform targeted interventions in urban planning, transit policy and food assistance, ensuring that nutritious diets become both possible and practical for every Massachusetts household.