Zhenghao (Shawn) Li · Ph.D. candidate · Penn State
WEARABLE SYSTEMS / HUMAN-CENTERED AIResearch at the human scale.
Building
intelligence
you can wear.
I build wearable systems that turn everyday signals into useful health insights and more accessible ways to interact with technology.
Working with Prof. Mahanth Gowda at Penn State.
Meet the researcher - Wearable devices
- Multimodal AI
- Health sensing
- Accessible computing
Wearable sensing · Health · Accessibility
Scroll to explore01 / Work in focus
Selected research.
01 — Featured system ACM IMWUT / UbiComp · 2025
FuSenseRing
Blood-pressure sensing, in a ring.
An open-source smart ring combining four sensing modalities to estimate blood pressure—even as skin temperature and contact pressure change.
02 — Aquatic sensing AquaTag
One open-source platform for swimming analysis, adapting to the head, wrist, or lower back.
Read the research
03 — Egocentric vision EgoSSA
Reconstructing fast, occluded hand motion in 3D to support American Sign Language research.
Read the research02 / The approach
Built across disciplines.
I work across hardware, signal processing, and machine learning to take a sensing system from the first prototype to evaluation with people.
01 Prototype Build the device.
Start with the physical system: compact sensors, custom electronics, and wearable form factors that can capture useful signals outside the lab.
Hardware · Signal processing · Sensor fusion02 Learn Model the signal.
Develop models that account for how people and environments vary—from changes in skin temperature to where a swimming sensor is worn.
Machine learning · Multimodal AI · Robust inference03 Evaluate Test in context.
Evaluate complete systems with people, connecting measurements and model performance to practical questions in health and accessibility.
User studies · Real-world validation · Open research03 / Behind the research
Curiosity, in practice.
From UC Irvine to USC to Penn State, my path has connected software, machine learning, and the physical world. Today, I bring them together in wearable systems.
More about me