On Wednesday, May 13, in a hybrid lecture open to NIH staff, researchers, and the public, Guillermo Sapiro, Ph.D, Augustine Family Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University, will deliver a talk titled “Wearables and Machine Learning Changing Health Access and Science.” The presentation is part of the NIDCD Director’s Seminar Series: Advancing the Science of Communication to Improve Lives.
Dr. Sapiro will discuss examples from his work on screening for autism spectrum disorder with iPhones at home and a study on persistent biological clock from wearables, among other examples. He will also discuss how technology - like the devices we carry in our pockets, wear on our wrists, and use in our ears - is changing healthcare, and how it should continue to do so, as well as the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve technologies that can ameliorate communication disorders. Dr. Sapiro will illustrate how novel ML leads to new insights from devices and how it can help identify new biomarkers.
The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion including Dr. Sapiro and three distinguished panelists who are leaders in the field of AI/ML technologies in health care:
- Dr. Bruce Tromberg, Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health
- Dr. Blake Wilson, Director, Duke Hearing Center, Duke University
- Dr. Rupal Patel, Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University
The NIDCD Director’s Seminar Series features next-generation research that advances the science of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language. Seminar topics are designed to align with the themes and priorities of the 2023-2027 NIDCD Strategic Plan, including innovations with the potential to improve the lives of people with hearing loss and communication disorders.
The series of annual lectures is open to all NIH staff, contractors, and trainees; the extramural community; and other interested groups and individuals.
The live videocast will be captioned and recorded for later viewing. American Sign Language interpreting and CART (real-time transcription) services are available upon request to participate in this event. Individuals needing either of these services and/or other reasonable accommodations should contact Evan Wicker (evan.wicker@nih.gov) by April 29, 2026 to ensure interpreter availability.
About the Speaker
Guillermo Sapiro received his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in 1993. After post-doctoral research at MIT, Dr. Sapiro became a Member of Technical Staff at the research facilities of HP Labs in Palo Alto, California. He was with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he held the position of Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Vincentine Hermes-Luh Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering. From 2012 to 2025, he was a James B. Duke School Professor with Duke University. He is also a Distinguished Engineer with Apple, Inc., where he leads a team on Health AI. Dr. Sapiro works on theory and applications in computer vision, computer graphics, medical imaging, image analysis, and machine learning.