VP Nguyen

Assistant Professor, UMass Amherst
Director, Wireless & Sensor Systems Laboratory
College of Information & Computer Sciences

Lederle Graduate Research Center (LGRC), A235,
740 N. Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003
Email: vp.nguyen@cs.umass.edu
Office Hours: Mondays/Wednesdays 3pm-4pm

VP Nguyen founded and directs the Wireless and Sensor Systems Laboratory (WSSL) at the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also affiliated with Institute for Applied Life Sciences at UMass. He is the recipient of CACM Research Highlights 2020, 2021, ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlights 2017, 2020, 2022, SONY Faculty Innovation Award, IALS Midigrants 2024, UTA CSE Pre-Tenure Research Award 2022, Best Paper Award at ACM MobiCom 2019, Best Paper Runner-up at ACM SenSys 2018, and Best Paper Nominee at ACM SenSys 2017.

WSSL's broad research interests are in the areas of AI-powered mobile/wearable computing and sustainable computing. Our research agenda has focused on Sustainable Autonomous Things (SATs) for the vision of the Internet of Sustainable Medical Things, Internet of Sustainable Living Things, and Internet of Sustainable Flying Things. Our work is interdisciplinary in nature, where we develop new techniques in sensor and sensing system development, algorithms, data analytics, signal processing, hardware, and firmware optimization to invent (1) a new class of "medical devices" that can continuously and unobtrusively collect novel and important health data in non-clinical settings, (2) a new class of "living sensors" that can live with plants/animals, and (3) a new class of "unmanned aerial vehicles" that requires extremely low maintenance. We are also interested in sustainable quantum computing, and with Berkeley Lab, we have made some exciting progress. Reach out to us to learn more!

Selected News!

Vision/Position/Call for Action Articles

Earables as Medical Devices: Opportunities and Challenges
EarComp-UbiComp'23
Abdul Aziz, Ravi Karkar, Kan Ding, Jay Harvey, and Phuc VP Nguyen

Towards the Internet of Living Trees for Precision Agriculture
GetMobile 2023
Jackson Liller, Trung Tran, and Phuc VP Nguyen

The Future of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Has No Batteries
GetMobile 2024
Jackson Liller and Phuc VP Nguyen

Selected Publications

An Unobtrusive and Lightweight Ear-worn System for Continuous Epileptic Seizure Detection
ACM Health 2024
Abdul Aziz, Nhat Pham, Neel Vora, Cody Reynolds, Jaime Lehnen, Pooja Venkatesh, Zhuoran Yao, Jay Harvey, Tam Vu, Kan Ding, Phuc VP Nguyen


Unvoiced: Designing an LLM-assisted Unvoiced User Interface using Earables
ACM SenSys 2024 (Acceptance ratio: 18.5%).
Tanmay Srivastava, Prerna Khanna, Shijia Pan, Phuc VP Nguyen, Shubham Jain

An Open-Source Data Storage and Visualization Platform for Collaborative Qubit Control
Nature Scientific Reports 2024
Devanshu Brahmbhatt, Yilun Xu, Neel Vora, Larry Chen, Neelay Fruitwala, Gang Huang, Qing Ji, Phuc VP Nguyen

ML-Powered FPGA-based Real-Time Quantum State Discrimination Enabling Mid-circuit Measurements
Quantum Week (QCE) 2024, Preprint arXiv 2024
Neel R. Vora, Yilun Xu, Akel Hashim, Neelay Fruitwala, Ho Nam Nguyen, Haoran Liao, Jan Balewski, Abhi Rajagopala, Kasra Nowrouzi, Qing Ji, K. Birgitta Whaley, Irfan Siddiqi, Phuc VP Nguyen, Gang Huang.

Laser-based Drone Vision Disruption with a Real-time Tracking System for Privacy Preservation
Expert Systems with Applications 2024 (IF: 7.5)
Endrowednes Kuantama, Yihao Zhang, Faiyaz Rahman, Richard Han, Judith Dawes, Rich Mildren, Tasnim Azad Abir, Phuc VP Nguyen.

IOTeeth: Intra-Oral Teeth Sensing System for Dental Occlusal Diseases Recognition
IMWUT/UbiComp 2024
Zhizhang Hu*, Amirmohammad Redmehr*, Yue Zhang, Shijia Pan, Phuc VP Nguyen
*equal contribution

3D Facial Tracking and User Authentication through Lightweight Single-ear Biosensors
IEEE TMC 2024
Yi Wu, Xiande Zhang, Tianhao Wu, Bing Zhou, Phuc VP Nguyen, Jian Liu


Jawthenticate: Microphone-free Speech-based Authentication using Jaw Motion and Facial Vibrations
ACM SenSys 2023 (34 out of 179 submissions, acceptance ratio: 18.9%).
Tanmay Srivastava, Shijia Pan, Phuc VP Nguyen, Shubham Jain

Enabling Low-Cost Server-Level Power Monitoring in Data Centers Using Conducted EMI
ACM SenSys 2023 (34 out of 179 submissions, acceptance ratio: 18.9%).
Pranjol Sen Gupta, Zahidur Talukder, Tasnim Azad Abir, Phuc VP Nguyen, Mohammad A. Islam

Exploring Batteryless UAVs by Mimicking Bird Flight
MobiSys-DroNet IX 2023
Rishabh Goel*, Tien Pham*, Phuc VP Nguyen, Josiah Hester.
*equal contribution

Drone Detection and Tracking
MobiSys 2017, DroNet 2019, SenSys 2020, DroNet 2023
ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlights 2017
[1] Matthan: Drone Presence Detection by Identifying Physical Signatures in the Drone's RF Communication. Phuc Nguyen, Hoang Truong, Mahesh Ravindranathan, Anh Nguyen, Richard Han, and Tam Vu. ACM MobiSys 2017.
[2] Towards RF-based Localization of a Drone and Its Controller. Phuc Nguyen, Taeho Kim, Jinpeng Miao, Daniel Hesselius, Erin Kenneally, Daniel Massey, Eric Frew, Richard Han, and Tam Vu. ACM DroNet 2019.
[3] DroneScale: drone load estimation via remote passive RF sensing. Phuc Nguyen, Vimal Kakaraparthi, Nam Bui, Nikshep Umamahesh, Nhat Pham, Hoang Truong, Yeswanth Guddeti, Dinesh Bharadia, Richard Han, Eric Frew, Daniel Massey, and Tam Vu. ACM SenSys 2020.
[4] DroneChase: A Mobile and Automated Cross-Modality System for Continuous Drone Tracking. Neel Vora, Yi Wu, Jian Liu, and Phuc Nguyen. ACM DroNet 2023.
[5] Towards Robust Lidar-based 3D Detection and Tracking of UAVs. Tasnim Abir, Endrowednes Kuantama, Richard Han, Judith Dawes, Rich Mildren, and Phuc Nguyen. ACM DroNet 2023

MuteIt: Jaw Motion based Unvoiced Command Recognition using Earable
IMWUT/UbiComp 2022
Tanmay Srivastava, Prerna Khanna, Shijia Pan, Phuc VP Nguyen, Shubham Jain

IoTree: A Battery-free Wearable System with Biocompatible Sensors for Continuous Tree Health Monitoring
ACM MobiCom 2022 (Acceptance Ratio 17.8%).
Tuan Dang, Trung Tran, Khang Nguyen, Tien Pham, Nhat Pham, Tam Vu, Phuc VP Nguyen
Featured by GetMobile 2023

PROS: an Efficient Pattern-Driven Operating System for Low-Power Healthcare Wearables
ACM MobiCom 2022 (Acceptance Ratio 17.8%).
Nhat Pham, Hong Jia, Minh Tran, Tuan Dinh, Nam Bui, Young Kwon, Dong Ma, Phuc VP Nguyen, Cecilia Mascolo, Tam Vu

BioFace-3D: Continuous 3D Facial Reconstruction Through Lightweight Single-ear Biosensors
ACM MobiCom 2021 (Acceptance Ratio 17.4%).
Yi Wu, Vimal Kakaraparthi, Zhuohang Li, Tien Pham+, Jian Liu, Phuc VP Nguyen
ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlights 2022

FaceSense: Sensing Face Touch with an Ear-worn System
ACM UbiComp 2021
Vimal Kakaraparthi*+, Qijia Shao*, Charles J. Carver, Tien Pham+, Nam Bui, Tam Vu, Phuc VP Nguyen, Xia Zhou
*equal contribution

Painometry: Wearable and Objective Quantification System for Acute Postoperative Pain
ACM MobiSys 2020 (34 out of 175 submissions, acceptance ratio: 19.4%).
H. Truong, N. Bui, Z. Raghebi, M. Ceko, N. Pham, P. Nguyen, A. Nguyen, T. Kim, K. Siegfried, E. Stene, T. Tvrdy, L. Weinman, T. Payne, D. Burke, T. Dinh, S. D’Mello, F. Banaei-Kashani, T. Wager, P. Goldstein, and T. Vu

WAKE: A Behind-the-ear Wearable System for Microsleep Detection
ACM MobiSys 2020 (34 out of 175 submissions, acceptance ratio: 19.4%).
N. Pham, T. Dinh, Z. Raghebi, T. Kim, N. Bui, P. Nguyen, H. Truong, F. Banaei-Kashani, A. Halbower, T. Dinh, and T. Vu

Other Systems:


Full Publication List

Activities

Technical Program Committee

  • 2025: ACM MobiCom
  • 2024: ACM MobiCom, ACM SenSys, ACM BodySys, IEEE BSN, EAI MobiQuitous
  • 2023: ACM MobiSys, SenSys, IoTDI
  • 2022: ACM MobiCom, ACM BuildSys, IEEE MSN, DigiBiom-MobiSys, CML-IOT
  • 2021: ACM MobiSys, ACM SenSys, IEEE MSN
  • 2020: ACM SenSys/BuildSys Joint Doctoral Colloquium; ACM DroNet
  • 2018: ACM MobiSys PhD Forum
  • 2017: ACM MobiCom S3; ACM SenSys - FAILSAFE; IEEE VTC

Chair and Co-Chair

  • 2025: Artifact Chair at IEEE Percom
  • 2024: Publication Co-Chair at ACM MobiSys, Demo and Poster Co-Chair at IEEE BSN
  • 2023: Sponsorship Chair at HotMobile
  • 2022: Workshop Chair at MobiSys, PhD Forum Co-Chair at SenSys, Workshop Co-Chair at EAI MobiQuitous
  • 2021: ACM DroNet, Sensing Session Chair at MobiSys
  • 2017: ACM MobiCom - S3

Panelist

  • 2022: ACM MobiSys - IASA Workshop
  • 2020: ACM SenSys/BuildSys Joint Doctoral Colloquium
  • 2020: ACM MobiSys - Birds of a Feather: Faculty Job Search During Recession

Journals Reviewer

  • ACM Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT)
  • IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
  • IEEE Sensors
  • IEEE Communications Magazine
  • Elsevier Computer Networks

Editors/Guest Editors

  • [Drones] Special Issue on Detection, Identification and Tracking of UAVs and Drones. Co-editing with Richard Han (Macquarie U),
    Karthik Dantu (UBuffalo), Endrowednes Kuantama (Macquarie U)
  • [Sensors] Special Issue on Human Motion Monitoring and Modeling. Co-editing with Shijia Pan (UC Merced) and Shubham Jain (Stony Brook)

Awards

  • UTA CSE Pre-Tenure Research Award 2022
  • ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight 2022
  • Best Poster Award, IPSN 2022
  • SONY Faculty Innovation Award 2021
  • UT Rising Stars Award 2021
  • ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight 2020
  • Best Paper Award, ACM MobiCom 2019
  • Best Paper Runner up Award, ACM SenSys 2018
  • ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight 2017
  • Best Paper Award Nominee, ACM SenSys 2017
  • Best Paper Award, ACM MobiCom-S3 2016, 2017
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Award 2016.

Sponsors