Justin Wyss

Justin Wyss is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at The University of British Columbia (UBC). Originally from Zürich, Switzerland, he conducts research in the Molecular Mechatronics Laboratory at UBC and at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) in Vancouver. He is co-supervised by Dr. John Madden and Dr. Babak Shadgan. His expertise lies in soft sensors, flexible electronics, electroactive polymers and near-infrared spectroscopy. His research focuses on the development of novel prevention and rehabilitation technologies in healthcare.He is currently working on a device to prevent pressure ulcers, which is a complex chronic wound that affects more than 3 million people in North America each year. Most susceptible to the formation of pressure ulcers are individuals living with spinal cord injury, the ageing population and hospitalized patients. During his Master’s, he developed a soft, flexible, and stretchable pressure sensor array designed to warn of pressure ulcer formation, which he is further advancing and scaling up to accommodate wheelchairs and beds. The goal of his research is to create a fully autonomous prevention device for pressure ulcers, which includes a prevention algorithm that he is developing based on his studies using near-infrared spectroscopy. He is an alumnus of UBC’s Engineers in Scrubs program, entrepreneurship@UBC’s Lean Launchpad program and SFU Beedie School of Business’ Invention-to-Innovation program. In addition, he is the current Engineering President of the Technology in Medicine club at UBC and the former President of the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Association at UBC.