Jiangyifei Zhu

Jiangyifei Zhu is a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a wireless sensing systems researcher focused on health, advised by Prof. Swarun Kumar and Prof. Justin Chan. His work centers on using mmWave radar to continuously and contactlessly sense human physiological signals, with publications at premier venues in the mobile and ubiquitous sensing community such as SenSys. Check out Jiangyifei’s website at this link.

Can you tell me about your research interests and focus?
We humans are lazy, but knowing how vital health is, I devote myself to building systems that can monitor it ubiquitously. Through mmWave radar sensing, I keep learning how informative body‑surface vibrations can be, revealing internal states like vascular health, muscle fatigue, and so on. My initial research is driven by seeing people close to me struggle with health. I still remember, three years ago, emailing Swarun to ask for a research internship started with mentioning my grandma’s muscle weakness which made me eager to develop techniques that could support muscle rehabilitation. Pushing contactless sensing toward clinical impact is very challenging, my research will continue to seek pathways for wireless sensing to monitor physiology and predict disease. It would be long‑term work with clinical professionals to make it truly useful.

What are the research accomplishments that you are most proud of?
I’m proud of both PolyPulse and GigaFlex. PolyPulse was a starting point, and interacting with participants made the impact feel real. During data collection with older adults in Pittsburgh, people said things like “I wish your blood pressure device were already on the market” and “This would be really useful,” which encouraged me to keep advancing wireless health sensing. GigaFlex is special to me. I brought chaos theory, the butterfly‑symbol idea mostly used in weather forecasting, into muscle vibration monitoring. The experiment was massive, with each session averaging three hours. I still can't believe we collected 40 sessions of data, finished processing, and wrote the paper all in one month. It is a miracle that we submitted on time and the paper was accepted.

Can you tell me about the work culture and environment at CMU?
CMU has a grit‑driven spirit that motivates me to work hard. The research environment is incredibly open. Wild ideas are seriously discussed, and people are also free to criticize, which helps make ideas logically solid. There is real space and freedom to push yourself further, and I genuinely enjoy working in my lab. Overall, it is a place full of support for big dreams, and it pushes me to think deeply about how to create value.

Can you share a little known fact about yourself?
I reset myself with small rituals like music, meditation, and philosophy. I also play almost any game where a ball flies around, such as tennis, badminton, basketball, and squash. Sports really helps my day :)