Award Winning Cutting-edge Technology For Injury Prevention
MuscleLogic: Low-Cost Home-Use Wearable Sensor Kit To Detect Muscle Fatigue and Overuse
Nearly half of all youth sports injuries come from overuse. Motivated by his own injury experience, Ryan Wang invented MuscleLogic: a low-cost, home-use wearable sensor kit that combines muscle sensing, movement tracking, and AI-powered analysis to support personalized fatigue monitoring and prevent muscle overuse injury. Its companion mobile app brings real-time muscle fatigue visualization and feedback directly to users’ phones.
Three Phases of Innovation
Phase I: Establishing the Foundation
Exploring how wearable sensors can reveal muscle activity and fatigue.
Ryan developed an Arduino-based prototype using electromyography (EMG) and galvanic skin-response (GSR) sensors. Early experiments explored muscle contractions, exercise activity, and intensity, establishing the foundation for further fatigue-monitoring research.
The test results show a precise correlation between the muscle contraction data and the athlete’s exercise. By analyzing the pattern of muscle contraction data, it is possible to obtain a comprehensive analysis of the player’s muscle fatigue. Compared with existing wearable sensor technology that records sport load or muscle contraction, this study demonstrates the validity of using a low-cost, easy to use at-home kit for detecting muscle fatigue and prevent muscle overuse injury.
Recognition: Ryan presented his wearable sensor kit research result at American Association for the advancement of science (AAAS) Pacific Division Conference. The poster got the second place "Excellence Student Poster Award" out of hundreds of posters at the student poster competition.
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Phase II: Advancing the Wearable System
Refining the hardware and focusing on personalized monitoring for racket sports
Ryan upgraded the Arduino-based platform with a SparkFun wireless shield and a MyoWare EMG sensor, improving hardware interfaces and sensor integration.
Key advantages of MyoWare 2.0:
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Better fatigue analysis: RAW and envelope outputs support frequency analysis and muscle activation tracking.
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Potentially cleaner signals: Designed to reduce noise, though not independently benchmarked.
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Signal-quality monitoring: Helps identify poor electrode contact and connection issues.
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Flexible electrode placement: Snap-on electrodes simplify positioning.
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System compatibility: Matches the existing firmware, Bluetooth communication, and app.
Recognition: Global Youth STEM Competition First Place and the $500 Grand Prize
Ryan won First Place and the $500 Grand Prize at the 2026 CAST Global Youth STEM Innovation & Entrepreneurship West Regional Competition. Caltech mathematician Professor Thomas Hou presented the award.
Phase III: Bringing The Research into Real Training
Expanding the technology and learning from athletes. Ryan added an IMU sensor and battery monitoring, expanding the system’s capabilities while moving into pilot user testing. He also built and launched MuscleLogic app on the Google Play Store, providing real-time muscle fatigue visualization and live feedback. Pilot testers and partnerships with San Diego tennis centers are helping refine the system’s accuracy and usability. 2026 US open boy's single tennis champion Marcel Latak tried MuscleLogic and gave suggestions. Partnered with sports sleeve manufacturer, Ryan redesigned the sleeve to be more comfortable and added a pouch to enclose and protect the sensors inside.
Recognition: Research milestone: Presented at MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference (URTC)
Ryan shared his research through a lightning talk at the MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference (URTC) and filed a patent application as development progressed.
