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Next class session - Tuesday, March 2nd at 4:30pm PST via Zoom
Abstract: What does it mean to have "normal" movement? How is our world built around these definitions and assumptions? How do these assumptions limit engagement, participation, and diversity? In this talk, presented for the 2020 NIH Rehabilitation Research conference, Dr Steele discusses these questions and draws from her personal experience working to understand human movement after neurologic injury. She demonstrates how assumptions of normalcy can often lead to incorrect decisions or limit innovation. She gives examples from our current assessments, environments, and experiences to help you consider how perceptions of "normal" impact your work and research. Biosketch: Kat M. Steele is the Albert S. Kobayashi Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. She leads the Ability & Innovation Lab, which integrates dynamic musculoskeletal simulation, motion analysis, medical imaging, and device design to understand and support human mobility. She earned her BS in engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and her MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. To integrate engineering and medicine, she has worked in multiple hospitals, including the Denver Children’s Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. For her research and innovations, she has been awarded an Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Engineering Career Development Award from NIH, the NSF CAREER (Early Faculty Development) Award, and the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Award. In 2020, she co-founded CREATE, the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences, with partners from industry and academia in engineering, rehabilitation medicine, disability studies, and information sciences, supported by an inaugural $2.5 million investment from Microsoft. She serves as the associate director of the center. Dr. Steele is also the co-founder of Access Engineering, an NSF-supported program that supports individuals with disabilities pursuing careers in engineering and trains all engineers in principles of both universal and ability-based design to create more inclusive products, environments, and experiences.
Abstract: "My central research goal is to develop wearable robotic devices that improve mobility and quality of life, especially for people with disabilities. My laboratory uses three complementary approaches. First, we develop tools to speed and systematize the design of prostheses and exoskeletons. Humans are complex, limiting the effectiveness of typical robotics design methods, so we have developed a new approach that utilizes versatile, laboratory-based emulator systems. Second, we leverage our emulators in basic scientific experiments aimed at discovering and characterizing new methods of assistance. Our versatile hardware allows rapid implementation of new ideas, controlled characterization of human response to device functionality, and new approaches to design and prescription involving online adaptation and patient-specific device optimization. Finally, we translate successful approaches into energy-efficient mobile devices. For example, we recently demonstrated an ankle exoskeleton that uses no energy itself yet reduces the metabolic energy cost of human walking. We are currently developing actuators based on electrostatic adhesion that are both energy efficient and controllable, which will enable new types of high-performance wearable robots." Biosketch: Steven H. Collins received his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 from Cornell University, where he performed research on passive dynamic walking robots with Andy Ruina. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 from the University of Michigan, where he performed research on the dynamics and control of human walking with Art Kuo. He performed postdoctoral research on humanoid robots with Martijn Wisse at TU Delft in the Netherlands. He was a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University for seven years. In 2017, he joined the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on design and robotics and directs the Stanford Biomechatronics Lab. His primary focus is to speed and systematize the design and prescription of prostheses and exoskeletons using versatile device emulator hardware and human-in-the-loop optimization algorithms (Zhang et al. 2017, Science). Another focus is efficient autonomous devices, such as highly energy-efficient walking robots (Collins et al. 2005, Science) and exoskeletons that use no energy yet reduce the metabolic energy cost of human walking (Collins et al. 2015, Nature). He is a member of the Scientific Board of Dynamic Walking and of the Editorial Board of Science Robotics. He has received the Young Scientist Award from the American Society of Biomechanics, the Best Medical Devices Paper from the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, and the student-voted Professor of the Year in his department. Zoom Attendance
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Other Email questions, comments, or suggestions - Please email me if you have general questions, comments, corncerns, or suggestions regarding the course. Thank you again for your interest. Dave
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