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Today's Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are complex and stressful environments for both patients and caregivers. In addition to the discomfort and fear they are already undergoing, patients experience the ICU itself as a noisy, overly bright, restricting, and social isolating place. Noise levels play a significant role in making the ICU a hostile, and sometimes even dangerous, environment for patients. ICUs regularly exceed World Health Organization-recommended maximum hospital noise levels of 35 A-weighted decibels [dBA] and US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) recommended 45 dBA, with average levels of 60-70 dBA and peaks over 90 dBC. Avinash Konkani, a doctoral candidate at Oakland University is applying a systems engineering approach to help resolve the problem of increasing noise and false alarms from the medical devices in hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and Operation Rooms (OR). This is an important area: increasing noise levels and alarm fatigue form significant obstacles for clinicians' work performance and adversely affects the patient safety. He works with Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Barbara Penprase at the Oakland University. He is also a Junior Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine (JTEHM). LinkedIn Profile : http://www.linkedin.com/in/avinashkonkani