DIZH Grant Awarded for SonNEEM Project
We are pleased to share that our project SonNEEM – Sonified Neurological EEG Events Monitoring has received funding from the 2024 DIZH (Digitalization Initiative of the Zurich Higher Education Institutions) Project call.
The project addresses a growing challenge in intensive care units (ICUs): the overwhelming volume and complexity of patient data that can contribute to delayed responses, diagnostic errors, and cognitive overload among healthcare staff. In particular, the interpretation of continuous EEG (cEEG) data remains time-consuming and expertise-intensive, despite its crucial role in detecting seizures and brain activity suppression in critically ill patients.
SonNEEM aims to combine artificial intelligence (AI) with auditory displays (ADs) to develop a novel real-time system for sonifying EEG signals. By translating complex EEG patterns—such as burst suppression and epileptiform activity—into intuitive sound cues, the system will support faster recognition, peripheral monitoring, and reduce mental workload in high-pressure environments like the ICU.
The project will be done by Una, Jenny and Emanuela in collaboration with Dr. Phil. Daniel Hug and Prof. Dr. Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken from the the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) including the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology and the Institute for Design Research, as well as clinical partners from UZH (Dr. Marian Galović) and Klinik Lengg (Dr. Lukas Imbach). The funding will also support Jenny Schmid in beginning her PhD, focusing on developing and optimizing EEG algorithms and integrating them into a real-time EEG monitoring system.