Can you imagine a future in which babies wear smart clothing to track their every move? It may sound like something from science fiction, but a romper suit being piloted in Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Pisa does exactly that. The'motor assessment of infants jumpsuit' (MAIJU) looks like typical baby clothing, but there is a crucial difference – it is full of sensors which assess child development. "MAIJU offers the first of its kind quantitative assessment of infant's motor abilities through the age from supine lying to fluent walking," explains Professor Sampsa Vanhatalo, project lead at the University of Helsinki. "Such quantitation has not been possible anywhere, not even in hospitals. Here, we are bringing the solution to homes, which provides the only ecologically relevant context for motor assessment."

The University of Helsinki (https://www.helsinki.fi/en) is an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. It is one of the leading multidisciplinary research universities in Europe and ranks among the top 100 international universities in the world. It offers comprehensive services to its employees, including occupational health care and health insurance, sports facilities, and opportunities for professional development. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is the largest university department for mathematical sciences in Finland. The multifaceted research carried out at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics has received the highest points in several evaluations.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Hospital (HUH), Finland, have developed software based on machine learning, which can independently interpret EEG signals from a premature infant and generate an estimate of the brain's functional maturity. Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the method is the first EEG-based brain maturity evaluation system in the world. It is more precise than other currently understood methods of evaluating the development of an infant's brain, and enables the automatic and objective monitoring of a premature infant's brain development. "We currently track the development of an infant's weight, height and head circumference with growth charts. EEG monitoring combined with automatic analysis provides a practical tool for the monitoring of the neurological development of preterm infants and generates information which will help plan the best possible care for the individual child," says Professor Sampsa Vanhatalo from the University of Helsinki, who led the research.