The Utah NeuroRobotics Lab was just awarded a $50,000 digital health grant to pivot our research into the mental health arena. EMG is typically recorded from the forearm to classify hand gestures/kinematics, but now we are using EMG from the wrist, in the form of a smartwatch, to predict activities of daily living. We think of this as a next-gen Fitbit: instead of tracking lower limb function, like if a person is sitting, standing, walking, falling, etc., we are tracking upper-limb function, like if a person is eating, typing, washing their hands, etc. The long-term goal is to build a map of an individual's lived space to promote healthy habits and detect anomalies. This grant will push us towards this goal by supporting a new mobile app and cloud computing infrastructure for our platform EMG technology. Our initial application seeks to help track instrumental activities of daily in patients with dementia to improve quality of life and reduce caregiver burden.
The Utah Neurorobotics Lab won a $100,000 grant from the Remote and Austere Conditions Grand Challenge, presented by the University of Utah’s Office of the Vice President for Research. The RAC Grand Challenge was created “as a pioneering initiative to stimulate and support innovative research focused on developing new techniques, technologies, and methods for remote and austere environments”, intending to “drive advancements and societal impact that address the unique challenges of these environments.”
Our proposal was titled “FrostByte: A Wearable Temperature Monitoring System for Frostbite Prevention and Research.” The project leverages a prototype wearable glove developed by our lab to monitor and prevent frostbite. The current device consists of a simple glove liner with a few thermocouples wired to a heating element to activate in case of extreme temperatures, but this simple device could have a big impact on clinical care. 1 in 10 people who live in cold climates get frostbite at some point in their life, and that number gets as high as 1 in 3 for those who recreate in the cold. 30% of frostbite cases result in amputation.
Under principal investigators Jacob George, PhD, and Scott McIntosh, MD, a team of MDs and PhDs were assisted by lab members Connor Olsen and Sophie Nelson. Congratulations team!
You can find more information on the RAC Grand Challenge here.
Our lab is proud to announce the funding of three new pilot grants authored by three of our Ph.D. students. Congratulations to Monika Buczak (Biomedical Engineering), Marshall Trout (Electrical Engineering), and Connor Olsen (Electrical Engineering). Each has been awarded ~$5,000 by the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to help fund their research!
Monika’s Grant, entitled “Electronic Grip Gauge (EGG): Disentangling Sensory and Motor Deficits of Fine Hand Function,” will fund the development and translation of the EGG, an assessment tool to measure grip and dexterity. The EGG is currently used to assess the dexterity of prosthetic control in a research setting, and Monika hopes to translate the egg into the clinical sphere to assist with the rehabilitation of individuals who have suffered strokes.
Marshall’s Grant, entitled “Assisting and Rehabilitating Hand Dexterity for Stroke Patients through Proximal Nerve Stimulation,” uses functional electrical stimulation to reanimate stroke patients’ paretic limbs to assist in rehabilitation. Marshall’s work will operate similarly to mirror therapy but by actually moving the patient’s paretic limb through electrical stimulation of the proximal nerve.
Connor’s Grant, entitled “Enhancing Patient Independence with Hand Gesture Control of Inpatient Smart Rooms,” will fund the development of an EMG controller that will allow individuals to control their smart home environment using hand gestures. Connor seeks to enable the patients at the Nielsen Rehabilitation Hospital to use this control method in their hospital rooms to increase independence and promote recovery.
Connor Olsen has been awarded the Enhancing Research Mentorship Grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of Utah. This is the first (pilot) year this grant has been awarded and aims to improve the mentorship experience between mentees and mentors in a research setting and improve the diversity among researchers.
Connor’s grant, titled “Skill-Focused Research Training Session for New Undergraduate Researchers,” seeks to improve the process of bringing undergraduates into the research sphere by focusing less on what tasks they can perform and instead on developing critical research skills, such as performing literary analyses, developing research questions, and analyzing experimental data. He hopes to use this grant to promote change away from undergraduates being assigned menial tasks in a research lab and build them into future researchers who can act independently and think critically.