Professor Omar Escalona

Overview

Omar Escalona is a Professor in the School of Engineering and a member if the Engineering Research Institute. He is Director of the Centre for Advanced Cardiovascular Research (CACR) at Ulster University. His ongoing research and impact activities are on: atrial fibrillation solutions with improved QALY outcome difference; highly efficient cordless energy supply systems for artificial hearts and VADs; and Connected-Health enabled cardiovascular healthcare services. Since 1986, he has published more than 120 articles in prestigious International Journals and Conference Proceedings, all in the area of cardiovascular research. In 1994, he submitted his first successful European academic networking grant proposal in the ALFA Programme (Project Alfa-Beta) and has had subsequent EU funding for his research since including a recent H2020 MRCA-RISE award entitled WASTCArD.

Omar has held positions as a Lecturer at the Armed Forces Polytechnic University of Venezuela (1986-1988); a Research Assistant at NIBEC, Ulster University (1988-1995) and a tenure track Associate Professor at University Simón Bolívar (USB), Caracas, Venezuela (1995). At USB, his innovation on the use of the Hartley transform for early diagnosis of Chagas disease cardiomyopathy was clinically tested. He gained the Titular Professorship position at USB in 1999 while continuing his research links with Ulster University through the Alfa-Beta Project. In 2001 he was appointed Visiting Professor at Ulster University. In 2006 he became Course Director of the Electronic Engineering course at USB. In 2007 he took up his current position academic post at Ulster in 2007.

Professor Escalona has BSc Hons Degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from University of Surrey (1980); an MSc from University Simón Bolívar (USB), Venezuela (1986) and a PhD at Ulster University (1993). The latter was in the area of high-resolution ECG diagnostic techniques, which resulted in his first innovation patent: “Analysis of Heart Waveforms”, US Patent #5694942, 9/Dec/1997.