Executive Summary

This invited presentation discusses Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS)-assisted Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) for two critical applications:

Detection of low-flying drones around critical infrastructure, and
Remote physiological motion monitoring for healthcare and triage.

The first segment introduces liquid-metal-based RIS as a reconfigurable medium to improve spatial diversity and range resolution in low-altitude radar sensing. The approach enhances coverage and detection in monostatic and bistatic configurations while leveraging existing communication antennas and waveforms for dual-use radar functionality.
The second part focuses on ISAC-enabled vital sign detection, demonstrating non-contact cardiopulmonary sensing using FR2 (28 GHz) OFDM systems and Channel State Information (CSI) analysis. These methods enable through-barrier physiological sensing and UAV-based remote triage, representing key DoD and biomedical applications of next-generation radar-communication integration.

Important Dates

📅 Date: April 10, 2025
🏛️ Venue: George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
🎙️ Host: Sarah Campbell (scampben@gmu.edu)
🧭 Session: Applied ISAC: Drones, Defense, and Health Applications
📧 Presenter Contact: yaozheng@hawaii.edu

Key Themes

RIS-assisted radar for low-flying UAV detection
Integrated communication and sensing for triage and vital sign monitoring
FR2 (28 GHz) OFDM sensing via CSI analysis
Trade-offs between communication and sensing waveforms
Dual-use opportunities for defense and biomedical systems

Context

This presentation is part of the NSF–DoD Workshop on Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) organized by George Mason University to inform R&D roadmaps for DoD initiatives.
Topics align with emerging NextG spectrum-sharing, sensing-capable wireless infrastructure, and dual-use system design.