An engineer driven by heart

Alumnus and entrepreneur Ziad Sankari turned a family tragedy into a passion for developing technologies that can save the lives of patients with heart disease.

At age 17, Sankari lost his father to a heart attack. The doctors told him that if they could have treated his father early enough, they could have saved him. So he decided to devote his college education to understanding the electrical activity of the heart, and how monitoring and analyzing that activity can save lives.

Originally from Beirut, Lebanon, Sankari attended The Ohio State University on a U.S. Fulbright scholarship. He graduated in 2010 with dual master’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering, and biomedical engineering.

Sankari launched his company, CardioDiagnostics, in 2012. It developed FDA-approved wearable devices that are 24/7 GPS-enabled heart rate monitors allowing for heart monitoring centers to communicate diagnostic and preventive information to patients.

His work has attracted prominent attention worldwide, including from President Barack Obama. In 2015, Sankari was one of just five global entrepreneurs honored at the White House during a special event that highlighted the importance of investing in women and young entrepreneurs to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges. During that visit, he also met with Vice President Biden and the Sharks from the Shark Tank TV series.

“It was a great opportunity to go to the White House, meet with the president and hear him recognize our work on CardioDiagnostics, which is pioneering work in the area and our industry,” Sankari explained.

Between his studies, research and serving on the university’s Council of Graduate Students at Ohio State, Sankari also attended a series of courses taught by the Fisher College of Business that teaches students how to turn an idea into a company. He was part of the team, along with fellow biomedical engineer Samit Gupta ('10) and three other Ohio State students, that captured first place in the 2010 Fisher Business Competition with their plan for OxyPatch—an advanced oxygen sensor implant used for wound monitoring. The win included $15,000 in cash and $70,000 worth of in-kind services.

Calling it the most productive period of his life, Sankari has fond memories of his time at Ohio State.

“I just posted on Facebook that I spent the best days of my life in Columbus,” he said. “It was literally a life-changing experience, because I was not only learning technical skills in my courses and research work, I was building my leadership record with all of the extracurricular activities I was doing and also developing my entrepreneurial skills at the same time.”

After returning to Lebanon, Sankari was selected to pitch CardioDiagnostics at the 2011 Global Innovation through Science and Technology’s (GIST) Tech-I competition where he won first place. Through this U.S. Department of State-funded initiative, he received his first round of seed funding and traveled through various U.S. cities to expand his network, learn how to negotiate and connect with mentors.

Beyond creating noninvasive cardiac monitoring devices, CardioDiagnostics is focused on using technology to help healthy people stay heathy. One of the projects Sankari’s team is working on involves creating new algorithms that can turn information provided by a person’s cardiac signal into actionable insights for healthier living.

“For instance, we can automatically monitor how much you eat, which nobody else in the world today can do. From your cardiac signal there are things you can extract, analyze and use to tell if you ate too much in a day or ate too little,” Sankari said.

The same technology could also measure stress levels, Sankari explained, and provide feedback, such as playing de-stressing music.

“These ideas are just scratching the surface of what this technology can do,” he said.

Sankari returned to campus this past spring to speak at an engineering-focused Startup Snapshot, a showcase of new technologies and companies hosted by Ohio State’s Technology Commercialization Office.

“My team would not be able to create life-saving technologies without my amazing experience at Ohio State,” he told the audience.

Sankari’s passion for saving lives—and all things Buckeye—is evident. And finding one’s passion is exactly what he suggests for other engineers with entrepreneurship aspirations.

“I strongly believe that when you’re driven by passion you’re likely to create a lot of momentum in your career and have a lot of success.”

For those who haven’t yet found their passion, Sankari offers some simple advice: experiment until you do.

“That’s what I did at Ohio State. The moment I landed, I started just knocking on doors of different faculty asking them, can I just show up to your lab and see what you guys are doing?” he said. “That helped me get closer to my motivation and my passion.”

by Candi Clevenger, College of Engineering Communications, clevenger.87@osu.edu