Last week, Denny, Ying, Vincent and Justin travelled to Toronto to attend Rehabweek 2019.
Rehabweek brings together scientists, engineers and clinicians by combining a number of international conferences, including the International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS), the International Neurorehabilitation Symposium (INRS) and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM). This multidisciplinary mix provides a great stage for interesting presentations and discussion in the areas of rehabilitative and assistive technologies.
Denny presented a talk at INRS discussing the differences in expectations between clinicians and engineers in rehabilitation robotics.
Justin presented at ICORR, on his work in the development of robotic strategies for changing how people move – motivated by a desire to improve movement quality in patients who move in potentially harmful ways.
An important and interesting theme of the conference was a discussion about the current roadblocks to the adoption of robotic rehabilitation devices to clinical practice – something which we are working strongly towards in our Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotic Project at the University of Melbourne & Fourier Intelligence Joint Laboratory.
Arvin recently presented his confirmation seminar, on his project titled “Application of optical fiber Bragg grating sneosrs in transverse force and pose detection in Cochlear Implants”.
Arvin is investigating how fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) can be used as a tool to ensure that more Cochlear implants are done successfully, by providing surgeons with feedback during the insertion procedure to ensure that no damage is done to the inner ear.
Lab members Raphael and Ricardo last week attended the “AMP-ED Up!” National Amputee Conference in Canberra.
“AMP-ED Up!” brought together amputees, prosthetic manufacturing companies, assistive technology suppliers and a variety of other speakers to provide information and education from those in the sector.
Raphael and Ricardo set up a stand with Ricardo’s Virtual Reality Equipment and various prototypes and technologies from the Human Robotics Lab, allowing members of the public to learn more about the work we are doing here in the lab.
Today we officially welcome Associate Professor Ying Tan to the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
A/Prof Tan has moved across from Electrical Engineering, a move which will strengthen our connection with her and her research – if for no other reason than that she will be in the same building as us!
Congratuations Ying!
Yesterday we were proud to host representatives from the Aussie Hands Foundation – a local support group for people with hand differences.
Elizabeth Serpell, the Founder and Vice-President of Aussie Hands, and Julie McNally, the Victoria Representative, visited our laboratory to discuss the research we are performing in our Advanced Prosthetics Project
It is always a pleasure and privilege to be in touch with the potential real end-users of our research.
This month we’d like to welcome Yu Xia and Zeyu Li.
Yu Xia comes from Harbin, China, and recently completed his Masters of Mechanical Engineering here at the University of Melbourne. He will be joining the Advanced Prostheses Project.
Zeyu Li also completed a Master of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He has previously worked with the lab last year, and will continue his research within the Assistive and Rehabilitative Robotics Project.
We welcome them both and wish them well!
Congratulations to Raphael, who presented (and passed!) his confirmation seminar yesterday.
Raphael’s work investigates the use of vibrotactile actuators placed on bony parts of the body (such as the elbow) as a mechanism for providing feedback about a prosthetic to its user.
On Friday 8th February 2019, the University of Melbourne and Fourier Intelligence Robotics Laboratory was officially opened. The Opening Ceremony was conducted within the Space Lab facilities at the University of Melbourne. Introductions were given by A/Prof. Denny Oetomo and Fourier Intelligence CEO Alex Gu before the Laboratory was officially opened by Dean of the Melbourne School of Engineering, Professor Mark Cassidy.
Visitors were then treated to tours of the laboratory space proper, with demonstrations of the rehabilitation robots and facilities were conducted.
We were thrilled to have almost 50 guests in attendance, and would like to thank everyone for their support and contribution to progressing the laboratory to this point. We look forward to seeing you all in the future as we continue our scientific progress in the field of assistive and rehabilitative robotics!
Hot on the heels of Wences’ thesis submission, Gijo has also completed his thesis.
Gijo will be continuing at the University of Melbourne in a Post Doctoral position – we’re more than happy to have him here.
Well done Gijo!
Congratulations to Wences, who has submitted his thesis and received his customary balloon.
Wences will be starting a Postdoc in KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in March.
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