Bioengineering

Upcoming Webinar: Creating Robotic Technology for Ultra-minimally Invasive Surgery

tcalcagn — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:49:04 +0000

The IET: Great Minds on Innovation series will present a free webinar on April 18th at 10 AM EDT. Dr. Pierre Dupont, Boston Childern’s Hospital, will present: Creating Robotic Technology for Ultra-minimally Invasive Surgery. In this webinar, Dr. Dupont will discuss “challenges and opportunities of medical device development in an academic research environment.” In addition, he will described his own research at Boston Children’s Hospital.

For more information and to regeister for this event, please visit the event page at: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=ydkobqz4k63u .

Open Access Publishing Fund Established

tcalcagn — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:33:09 +0000

Mason announced the establishment of the Open Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) to provide financial support to Mason scholars and researchers who wish to publish in open access (OA) journals. Establishment of the $25,000 fund is in direct response to faculty interest in open access journal publishing.

Support for the article processing fees required by some OA journals will be available to faculty, postdoctoral fellows and registered graduate students. More information and application forms will be posted to the University Libraries’ homepage (library.gmu.edu). The OAPF will operate on a first-come, first-served basis, concluding once all the funds have been awarded during the fiscal year.

Engineers develop advanced biomechanical legs

tcalcagn — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:49:41 +0000

Engineers at the U. of Arizona’s Robotics and Neural Systems Laboratory recently announced this week that they have “…made the world’s most advanced pair of biomechanical legs.” The legs, which are plastic, are made using a 3D printer. Kevlar straps connected to motors are used to bend and strengthen the legs. Sensors in the straps monitor the force, giving the robot a sense of its limbs’ postions and movements.

The goal of this project is to create more human-like movement in robots. The research may also explain better how humans walk which may have applications in thteaching spinal cord injury patients to walk.

Read the Research: Theresa J Klein and M Anthony Lewis 2012 J. Neural Eng. 9 046011 doi:10.1088/1741-2560/9/4/046011
http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?URL=http://iopscience.iop.org/1741-2552/9/4/046011

Watch the Video at Wired.com: http://bcove.me/cn1y9x4h

Robotic Finger IDs Materials Better Than Human Finger

tcalcagn — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:12:12 +0000

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have announced the creation of a robotic finger, called BioTac, that is capable of sensing textures and identifying materials with greater accuracy than a human finger. The robotic finger consists of a liquid core wrapped with a soft, flexible skin that vibrates when the finger slides over a textured surface. To identify the material, software is used to match the vibrations with materials it has on file. USC researchers trained the finger on over 100 common materials, including paper, wood, sponge, etc. When trying to identify unknown materials, the robot had a 95% success rate. Funding for the project was provided by NIH and DARPA.

For more info: http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/newsroom/news_release.php?id=2755
Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/19/robot-finger

Stroke Victims Use Thoughts to Control Robotic Arm

tcalcagn — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:14:32 +0000

In a research recently published in Nature, researchers detailed a project in which two stroke victims controlled the actions of a robotic arm using their thoughts. The victims, both long-standing quadraplegics, used implanted neural inferaces to control the actions of the robotic arm while performing reaching and grasping tasks in three-dimensions.

The VA, NIH and a number of private foundations provided support for this research.

Read the research (GMU only): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7398/full/nature11076.html
For more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/science/bodies-inert-they-moved-a-robot-with-their-minds.html?_r=2&hpw