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Next Steps in Clinical Translation

The Utah NeuroRobotics Lab is teaming up with Biological Input Output Systems (BIOS) to bring advanced neuroprostheses to the market. In this presentation at the Utah Life Sciences Summit, Dr. George, director of the Utah NeuroRobotics Lab, presents alongside Joshua Miller, CEO of BIOS. Check out their presentation below!

Summer REU Apps Due 1/28!

We are now accepting applications for summer undergraduate researchers to join the Utah NeuroRobotics Lab! If you're an undergraduate student interested in brain-computer interfaces, assistive/rehabilitative technology, or artificial intelligence, this is the program for you! Applications for our prestigious summer fellowship are now open, so apply today!

Applications are open to all undergraduates, regardless of their year. We strongly encourage applications from individuals from diverse/disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also particularly interested in students from outside of the University of Utah. Travel and housing are provided with the fellowship! Come check out what Utah has to offer.

NeuroRobotics Lab Featured in University Ad

The Utah NeuroRobotics Lab was highlighted in the latest University of Utah recruiting video airing online and on TV across the nation. The video highlights the many wonderful features of Utah, from the greatest snow (and skiing) on earth, to insane red-rock formations that are seemingly out of this world. The video also highlights the vibrant and diverse cultures within Salt Lake City and the surrounding Wasatch Mountains.  The video then goes on to highlight various highlights of the University of Utah, including a video of Dr. George and Connor Olsen working with the TASKA prosthetic hand in the Utah NeuroRobotics Lab, with a voiceover noting the University's "gifted professors."

Check out the inspiring video here:

Presentations at the Utah Biomedical Engineering Conference

Several students presented posters at the Utah Biomedical Engineering Conference on Saturday, September 9th. Presentations included:

  • Fredi Mino – Co-Adaptive Myoelectric Control: A Framework that Equalizes Human Computer-Interaction for Stroke Survivors
  • Abigail Harrison – Transcutaneous Wrist Stimulation Provides Sensory Feedback for Augmented and Virtual Reality
  • Connor Olsen – Wrist EMG Improves Gesture Classification for Stroke Patients
  • Jared Zollinger – Development of a Surface Electromyography Integrated Low-Cost Control System for Assistive Robotic Devices
  • Michael Adkins & Nate Toth – Automated Quantifiable Assessments of Sensorimotor Function Using an Instrumented Fragile Object
  • Bret Mecham – MAV of Peripheral Nerve Activity Has More Predictive Power than Firing Rate for Neuroprostheses
  • Caleb Thomson – Proportional Myoelectric Control of a Bionic Arm in Participants with Chronic Hemiparesis, Muscle Spasticity, and Impaired Range of Motion
  • Monika Buczak – Intuitive, Myoelectric Control of Adaptive Sports Equipment for Individuals with Tetraplegia

    • Gould Distinguished Lecture on Technology and the Quality of Life: From a sci-fi dream to real-world impact

    In 2019, Jacob George, an assistant professor in the University of Utah Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and fellow researchers at the U made waves with the “LUKE Arm.” Named after the robotic hand given to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, the team’s prosthetic arm has the ability to feel objects by transmitting the appropriate signals to the brain. Not only can the arm feel, but it can be controlled by the user’s thoughts.

    Members of the campus and broader community are invited to attend a lecture from George scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. in the Gould Auditorium on the first level of the U’s J. Willard Marriott Library.

    As the featured speaker for The William R. and Erlyn J. Gould Distinguished Lecture on Technology and the Quality of Life, George will highlight this technology and the advances that have taken place since their breakthrough technology was first announced—including translation into bionic exoskeletons to aid individuals with paralysis and into smartwatches that could allow anyone to seamlessly control smart devices and augmented reality interfaces by thought.

    Click here to read the full press release.

    Abby Citterman wins American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association’s Edwin and Kathryn Arbogast Award

    Congrats to Abby Citterman for being honored with the best prosthetic abstract at the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association National Assembly! Her poster is titled Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation at the Wrist as a Method to Restore Sensory Feedback for Individuals with Partial Hand Amputation. Sensory feedback is critical for dexterous hand function, but current methods are cumbersome, inhibiting the natural use of the residual hand or prosthesis. TENS at the wrist may constitute a functional solution for evoking distally referred sensations on the phantom digits and restoring intuitive, non-restrictive sensory feedback for individuals with partial hand amputation.

    The Edwin and Kathryn Arbogast Award and the Otto and Lucille Becker Award were founded in 2012, made possible by a special endowment by Becker Orthopedic and WillowWood. These awards honor two meritorious scientific papers submitted for presentation as a poster at the AOPA National Assembly, to encourage students and residents to display outstanding posters.

    The Edwin and Kathryn Arbogast Award is awarded annually for the best prosthetic abstract submitted by a qualifying student or resident. The main author of each presentation must be a student (baccalaureate or master level), or a resident at a qualified patient care facility. This prestigious honor also comes with $500 cash, free travel and lodging, and complimentary registration for the 2023 American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association National Assembly in Indianapolis, Indiana. Congratulations to Abby on this award!

    Farewell Lunch for Manya Murali

    On Thursday, August 24th, the lab held a farewell lunch for Manya Murali, an undergraduate in Computer Engineering at University of California, Davis. Manya was awarded a summer fellowship through the SPUR program here at the U, and we all enjoyed having her as a member of the lab the last few months. We are wishing the best of luck to her in the continuation of her studies!

    Revolutionizing Science Education

    In a lab in the U’s Craig H. Nielsen Rehabilitation Hospital, so new that plastic wrap and tape still enclose monitors and equipment cabinets, three or four middle school science teachers group around research assistant and recent MS graduate Bret Mecham, who is wearing a bionic exoskeleton on his arm.

    The bionic arm moves up and down. “I’m not controlling this,” Mecham tells the audience, “He is—” indicating a teacher who is holding an electrode on his forearm. As the teacher flexes and relaxes, the electrode picks up electrical signals in his muscle. Those signals translate into mechanical motion by the bionic arm. Such an arm, Mecham says, can restore strength and stability to people who have lost them through disease or injury.

    Around the room, other teachers gather around other demos hosted by assistant professor Jacob George, director of the Utah NeuroRobotics Lab, and his students. They’re showing the teachers how U researchers engineer ways for machines and nerves to talk to each other. The teachers are asking questions and taking notes.

    These 17 teachers from nine states aren’t here just to gather ideas for their classrooms. Their impact goes far beyond that. They were brought together by the U’s Genetic Science Learning Center (GSLC). In many gatherings like this over many years, the GSLC has co-designed, with teachers, new educational science content. The teachers are helping the GSLC know what students need.

    Over the next 12-18 months, the GSLC will produce lessons, videos and activities based on these sessions. When ready, the materials will be available on the GSLC’s website, which logs more than 16 million page views per year from nearly every country. These three days of presentations and discussions at the University Guest House in July 2023 will impact science education for middle school students and others around the world.

    “By the end of this,” GSLC director Louisa Stark, H.A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowed Chair and professor of human genetics, said in welcoming remarks, “we’ll have a wonderful set of ideas from you about what students need to know and how to support their learning.”

    ... continue reading at: https://attheu.utah.edu/uncategorized/u-center-works-with-teachers-to-design-science-education-tools/

    Dr. George Gives Expert Testimonial on Latest Research

    In a recent article from Science, Dr. George discusses the latest neurorobotics research...

    When someone loses a hand or leg, they don’t just lose the ability to grab objects or walk—they lose the ability to touch and sense their surroundings. Prosthetics can restore some motor control, but they typically can’t restore sensation. Now, a preliminary studyposted to the preprint server bioRxiv this month—shows that by mimicking the activity of nerves, a device implanted in the remaining part of the leg helps amputees “feel” as they walk, allowing them to move faster and with greater confidence.

    “It's a really elegant study,” says Jacob George, neuroengineer at the University of Utah who was not involved with the research. Because the experiments go from a computational model to an animal model and then, finally humans, he says, “This work is really impactful, because it's one of the first studies that's done in a holistic way.”

    Patients with prosthetics often have a hard time adapting. One big issue is that they can’t accurately control the device because they can’t feel the pressure that they’re exerting on an object. Hand and arm amputees, for example, are more prone to drop or break things. As a result, some amputees refuse to use such prosthetics.

    In the past few years, researchers have been working on prosthetic limbs that provide more natural sensory feedback both to help control the device better and give them back a sense of agency over their robotic limb. In a critical study in 2019, George and his team showed that so-called biomimetic feedback, sensory information that aims to resemble the natural signals that occur with touch, allowed a patient who’d lost his hand to more precisely grip fragile objects such as eggs and grapes.

    ...[continue reading on Science]