Yuyan Wu.
Yuyan Wu standing beside the ocean

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING · STANFORD

Hi, I’m Yuyan.

My research focuses on sensing through interaction traces.

I joined Stanford University as a Ph.D. student in Fall 2022 and expect to graduate in 2027. I am advised by Prof. Hae Young Noh in the Structures as Sensors Lab.

My research focuses on sensing methods that infer human and animal activity, health, and physical parameters from physical traces generated by their interactions with the surrounding environment.

From 2018 to 2022, I studied at the School of the Gifted Young at the University of Science and Technology of China and graduated with dual degrees in Applied Physics and Computer Science.

Email Google Scholar LinkedIn CV

RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

Sensing through interaction traces.

Every interaction between a subject and its environment leaves a trace. I develop sensing methods to reveal, enhance, and interpret these traces.

Interactions between a subject and its environment produce vibration and wake traces. Sensors measure these traces, and inference reveals emotion, body weight, presence and motion. Active probing reveals hidden traces; adaptive sensor designing enhances weak traces; physics-informed learning interprets existing traces.

Reveal hidden traces

Enhance weak traces

Interpret existing traces

Research framework: from interaction traces to information about people and animals. View full figure ↗
Explore the research framework

Research projects

A person resting on a bed with a speaker and vibration sensors.

01 Reveal hidden traces

Body weight estimation

Music-induced bed vibrations reveal body weight.

A fish wake reaches a wavy whisker on a spiral-perforated base.

02 Enhance weak traces

Fish monitoring

Whisker design makes fish wakes stand out from background flow.

A target person is compared with three distinct training people.

03 Interpret existing traces

Emotion recognition

Footstep-induced floor vibrations reveal emotion, with learning personalized by gait similarity.

Try it here.

Collapse Expand

Follow an interaction trace.
From measurement to inference.

Research approaches

Follow the trace to reveal the result.

  1. A person rests on a bed.

    Body weight changes the mechanics of the coupled body–bed system.

  2. Music excites the bed.

    Music-induced vibrations carry traces of how the person’s body changes the bed’s response.

  3. Vibration sensors record the response.

    Vibration sensors on the bed frame measure how the vibrations propagate through the bed–body system.

  4. The model estimates body weight.

    The model links these interaction traces to body weight using structural dynamics and physics-informed learning.

REVEAL HIDDEN TRACES

Music excites the bed, making the body’s effect on vibration transmission measurable. Our system interprets this interaction trace through a transfer function and a neural network guided by bed–body structural dynamics.

Explore body weight estimation ↓