For the last several years, I've been analyzing biophysical diagnostic data for a medical research project. The project is developing an infant feeding monitor which consists of a baby bottle with a pressure sensor in it; this measures strength and consistency of sucking as the infant feeds. The hope is that this will provide a simple and objective way of determining how healthy and strong infants are, especially pre-term infants, or possibly provide a way of diagnosing various feeding problems or other problems infants might have. I've been writing software to analyze data produced by the infant feeding monitor, and exploring different mathematical ways of characterizing inconsistent or irregular sucking patterns.

Our first publication has appeared in print: Quantification of Intraoral Pressures During Nutritive Sucking: Methods with Normal Infants.