Alumnus Wu operates the computer system connected to near-infared spectroscopy (NIRS) devices, which control data acquisition and visualization during experiments.

Triple Alum Traverses Departments to Tackle Maternal, Fetal Health

By Amber Frantz Email Amber Frantz

Cassia Crogan
Heidi Opdyke

When Jingyi Wu first arrived at Carnegie Mellon University, he was first-year student set on pursuing a bachelor’s degree in physics. Little did he know that his time at the university would span nearly 10 years and include not one, but three degrees.

“I chose to come here for undergrad because I knew that it would be academically challenging,” Wu said. “During my junior year, I started to think about what to do in the future and realized that I wanted to do something that felt more connected to people’s lives. That’s when I found Jana Kainerstorfer’s biophotonics course. It blended physics and biomedical science, which was exactly what I was looking for.”

After receiving his bachelor’s of science degree in 2018 from the Mellon College of Science (MCS), Wu switched to the College of Engineering, where he received an master’s degree and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering under the mentorship of Kainerstorfer, professor of biomedical engineering.

His graduate research specifically focused on improving maternal and fetal health during childbirth by developing an algorithm to measure fetal oxygen saturation during labor and delivery.

Using his background in physics to study how light interacts with human tissue, Wu’s research explores the noninvasive use of light to measure how much oxygen a fetus is receiving. Currently, physicians can only measure the fetal heart rate, but Wu said that this single metric falls short in assessing overall fetal health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 1.2 million Cesarean deliveries (C-sections) each year, accounting for 32.1 percent of all births in the U.S. Wu said he is hopeful that his research will reduce this number. Measuring fetal oxygen saturation offers a more complete picture of a fetus’s well-being than heart rate alone, and it can help determine if a fetus is experiencing hypoxia (low oxygen levels) — a common reason for a C-section delivery. With this additional metric, physicians can make better informed decisions about whether surgical intervention is necessary.

Wu holds a flexible NIRS probe designed to be placed on various parts of the body for different physiological measurements. The optical fibers connect this probe to the NIRS device, allowing light to travel through tissue.
Wu holds a flexible NIRS probe designed to be placed on various parts of the body for different physiological measurements. The optical fibers connect this probe to the NIRS device, allowing light to travel through tissue.
Wu sets up the sensor for the NIRS devices by connecting the fiber optic cables that deliver and collect light from the subject.
Wu sets up the sensor for the NIRS devices by connecting the fiber optic cables that deliver and collect light from the subject.

Wu worked to develop a novel algorithm to calculate and quantify this measurement of oxygen saturation. The noninvasive technique, transabdominal fetal pulse oximetry, works by shining light through the mother’s abdomen, where it interacts with the fetus before being captured by a detector on the surface. The detected light is subsequently analyzed using Wu’s algorithm to extract fetal oxygen saturation levels.

Wu validated his algorithm through experiments with free divers, who held their breath during dives to test the algorithm’s accuracy under low-oxygen conditions. To extend the algorithm’s use to fetal pulse oximetry, Wu incorporated multilayer photon modeling to account for signal interference from maternal tissue.

“This work lays important groundwork for the clinical translation of transabdominal fetal pulse oximetry, but further validation and development are still needed,” Wu said. “Our contributions also provide tools and insights for broader biomedical optics and physiological monitoring communities.”

Wu is collaborating with the startup company Raydiant Oximetry to commercialize a device that would be able to perform these measurements. Together, they are working to “more accurately detect fetal distress using noninvasive transabdominal fetal pulse oximetry,” said Neil Ray, Raydiant’s founder and CEO.

Graduate school can be demanding, and Wu’s experience is no exception. But the supportive community he found at Carnegie Mellon, Wu said, was crucial to his success. He also credits his undergraduate advisors for steering him toward a research lab that matched his interests.

Wu said that a feeling of belonging made all the difference in determining the trajectory of his academic journey. From the research lab to his extracurricular activities and sports, the Carnegie Mellon community helped Wu build friendships and collaborations that crossed departmental boundaries.

Wu noted that the most fun he had in the lab was getting to collaborate with his best friends from the Machine Learning Department, MCS, and Heinz College on research projects.

“One of my mentors said that the most fun he had during his Ph.D. was collaborating with many other people from different disciplines, so I tried to do the same,” Wu said.

With Wu’s physics and engineering background and his friends’ knowledge of machine learning, they were able to extract cardiac pulsations from optical signals measured using light — a clear example of entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary innovation.

Wu has co-authored nine peer-reviewed articles and completed an internship at Apple, but he maintains that the most rewarding part of his time in Pittsburgh is the connections he has made and support he received from “the school, departments, professors and friends.”

Wu plans to stay in Pittsburgh as a postdoctoral researcher through the fall semester, and he is looking forward to the next chapter of his career.

“I’m not sure what exactly I’ll do next, but I’m confident in whatever will come,” Wu said. “For me, that’s what is most important.”