Esther Rodriguez-Villegas

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Esther Olivia Rodriguez-Villegas
Born
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz, Spain
Alma materUniversity of Seville (BS, PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsImperial College London
ThesisLow voltage and low power analog and digital design with the floating gate MOS transistor (FGMOS) (2002)

Esther Rodriguez-Villegas FREng (born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz)[1] is a Spanish engineer, inventor and the Professor of Low Power Electronics at Imperial College London. Rodriguez-Villegas develops lightweight, low-power electronic devices for real-time monitoring of physiological signals. She was awarded the 2020 Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for her work on wearable medical devices. In 2020, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Rodriguez-Villegas attended the University of Seville where she earned both her master's and doctoral degrees.[3] She was selected as the top student of the year, being awarded the San Alberto Magno Prize.[4] Her doctoral research considered floating-gate MOSFETs. After graduating, she was awarded a research grant by the Government of Spain and joined the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona.

Research and career[edit]

In 2002, Rodriguez-Villegas joined Imperial College London, where she was eventually promoted to Professor of Low Power Electronics.[5] She works on low-power circuitry for medical diagnostics. Her circuits are capable of the highly accurate monitoring of physiological signals, allowing researchers to model the processes behind disease. These models allow not only the monitoring of medical conditions but also offer diagnostic capabilities. She is most interested in brain and respiratory conditions. In 2010, she was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to develop wearable technologies for the diagnosis and monitoring of epilepsy.[6]

In 2004, Rodriguez-Villegas was approached by the Epilepsy Society to create a low-power microelectronic device to monitor for sleep apnoea.[7] The society believed that her technology could prevent sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).[8] Based on her work on sensitive monitoring of sleep apnoea, she founded Acurable in 2016.[7] Acurable has been supported by Innovate UK and Microsoft. Acurable created the AcuPebble sensor,[9] which allows the accurate diagnosis and management of respiratory conditions through the monitoring of acoustic signals with astounding accuracy.[10] The device can help patients to manage conditions including apnoea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and whooping cough. It was successfully validated by the National Health Service in 2019 and achieved a CE mark in 2020.[7]

Alongside the AcuPebble, Rodriguez-Villegas has worked on a wireless, lightweight (1.5g), low-power device (the TaiNi) that can monitor the brains of mice for three days.[11] The ability to read information remotely reduces the amount of time that researchers have to handle mice, minimising the stress the mice experience, and the light weight affords the mice greater freedom of movement.[12]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodriguez-Villegas worked with a team of volunteers to design a contact-tracing app. Apple would only support one government-sponsored app per country, and Rodriguez-Villegas' was not continued.[13]

Awards and honours[edit]

Select publications[edit]

  • Rodriguez-Villegas, E.; Barnes, H. (18 September 2003). "Solution to trapped charge in FGMOS transistors". Electronics Letters. 39 (19): 1416–1417. Bibcode:2003ElL....39.1416R. doi:10.1049/el:20030900. ISSN 1350-911X.
  • Corbishley, Phil; Rodriguez-Villegas, Esther (2008). "Breathing Detection: Towards a Miniaturized, Wearable, Battery-Operated Monitoring System". IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. 55 (1): 196–204. doi:10.1109/TBME.2007.910679. ISSN 1558-2531. PMID 18232362. S2CID 206610032.
  • Casson, Alexander J.; Yates, David C.; Smith, Shelagh J.M.; Duncan, John S.; Rodriguez-Villegas, Esther (2010). "Wearable Electroencephalography". IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine. 29 (3): 44–56. doi:10.1109/MEMB.2010.936545. hdl:10044/1/5910. ISSN 1937-4186. PMID 20659857. S2CID 1891995.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "La ingeniera sanluqueña Esther Rodríguez Villegas, premio Merit Award". andalucía información (in Spanish). 27 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  2. ^ a b "New Fellows 2020". Royal Academy of Engineering. 21 September 2020. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  3. ^ Rodríguez Villegas, Esther Olivia (2002). Low voltage and low power analog and digital design with the floating gate MOS transistor (FGMOS) (Thesis) (in Spanish). Sevilla: s.n. OCLC 1124036465.
  4. ^ "Professor Esther Rodriguez Villegas". Imperial College London. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  5. ^ "Imperial celebrates International Women in Engineering Day". Imperial News. Imperial College London. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  6. ^ "ERC FUNDED PROJECTS". European Research Council. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  7. ^ a b c "Our story". Acurable. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  8. ^ "Wearable devices to help prevent sudden unexpected death through epilepsy". European Research Council. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  9. ^ "The team". Acurable. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  10. ^ "Silver Medal". Royal Academy of Engineering. 2020.
  11. ^ "Dementia and brain research could be improved thanks to new sensor". Imperial News. Imperial College London. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for pioneering engineer". Imperial News. Imperial College London. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  13. ^ "Europeans Aren't Really Using COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Apps". Vice. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  14. ^ a b "Honours and Memberships - Professor Esther Rodriguez Villegas". Imperial College London. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  15. ^ "Esther Rodríguez Villegas, premio Joven Complutense de Ciencia y Tecnología" [Esther Rodríguez Villegas, Young Complutense Prize for Science and Technology]. El País (in Spanish). 16 October 2009. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  16. ^ "Global 3Rs Winners". AAALAC. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  17. ^ Everywoman. "Finalists announced in the 2020 FDM @everywomanUK in Technology Awards". FE News. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  18. ^ "2024 Fellow Class" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved 23 December 2023.


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