MEMS SEMINAR: Helen Huang, "Restoring Motor Function of Individuals with Limb Loss via Bionic Prostheses"

Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science SPRING 2024 Seminar Series with Dr. Helen Huang, Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University (NC State) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)

ABSTRACT: As the population with limb loss in the U.S. grows to millions, there is an urgent need for new prosthetics technologies that can provide this large population with the best restoration of normal function possible. Advanced robotic prostheses, such as dexterous prosthetic hands and motorized prosthetic legs, have become commercially available. However, the function of these robotic devices is still limited due to lack of neural control and device adaptation.
In this talk, Dr. Huang will focus on the research of her lab towards building a symbiotic relationship between humans and wearable lower limb robotic prostheses. She and her team have developed neural-machine interfaces and learning-based control to enable prosthesis adaptation to its amputee users, environments, and task contexts. They aim to further advance the function of modern prostheses and significantly improve the quality of life of individuals with limb amputations.

Bio: DR. HELEN HUANG is the Jackson Family Distinguished Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University (NC State) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and the Director of the Closed-Loop Engineering for Advanced Rehabilitation (CLEAR) core. She is also the co-director of NIDILRR funded Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center. Her research interest lies in neural-machine interfaces, wearable robotics (robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons), learning-based wearable robot control, wearer-robot interaction and co-adaptation, and human motor control/biomechanics. She was a recipient of the Delsys Prize for Innovation in Electromyography, NIDILRR Switzer Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, ASA Statistics in Physical Engineering Sciences Award, and NC State ALCOA Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award. She is a Fellow of AIMBE, Fellow of IEEE, NC State faculty scholar, and member of the Society for Neuroscience, BMES, American Society of Biomechanics, and AAAS. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering and an Editorial Board Member for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.