In collaboration with Amii, we recently participated in the Juno Awards (Canada’s Music Awards) that took place on March 11th. We had several of our robots on display at a booth and Dr. Patrick Pilarski used one of our wearable robotic systems on stage to help deliver the rock album of the year (as seen the video below). It was a very fun event and we are excited to use our robots for more musical endeavors in the future.
BLINC lab’s Co-PI, Dr. Pilarski, shares how artificial intelligence and medicine are being combined in our lab to create and improve next-generation bionic limbs for people with amputations
BLINC members Cierra Stiegelmar (M.Sc. Student) and Mayank Rehani (Research Associate, Ph.D Student) did a phenomenal job representing the BLINC lab at this year’s 3MT competition!
Both presented on some of the exciting research projects they’re working on at BLINC, and were featured by the Faculty of Medicine.
Take a look at their presentations “I, Robotic Hand: How to Control a Prosthesis,” and “One Step at a Time: Living with a Prosthetic Leg Attached to the Bone” below:
We are presenting a poster and demo at the Cybathlon Symposium this Thurs Sept 17th and Fri Sept 18th respectively. The symposium has transitioned to a virtual format, so much of the symposium content will be available online in case you are not able to awaken in time for the 5am start time each day. You can find our twitter poster here and the rest of the posters can be found @cybathlon.
The early bird catches the Cybathlon Symposium.
The organizers have also announced a new online format for the Cybathlon 2020 competition which will be happening on Nov 13th and 14th. Instead of everyone meeting in Zurich, competitors will compete locally and submit their footage to the organizers who will put together a livestream with competition footage, stories, and interviews. You should definitely check it out!
On November 9th, Alicia MacDonald presented her work on optimization of an upper-limb prosthesis assessment tool called the Instrumented Cup at the WE19 conference in Anaheim, California. She competed in the Undergraduate Rapid Fire Competition and placed 2nd! She had a great time meeting fellow engineering students and representatives from biomedical device companies.
Congrats Alicia!
Read more here.
BLINC in Germany, Japan, and the USA!
We had a very exciting summer this year. Ben Hallworth in Germany’s DLR, Heather Williams in Japan’s Osaka University, and Cierra Stiegelmar in the USA’s Rhodes College. They had a lot of research work done and a ton of fun!
Earlier this October we organized the 1st Annual Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control Lab Graduational Pro-Am Fun Run Race For The Cure! The main goal of the event was to help chase Aïda (a former member of the UofA Panda’s track team and PhD candidate in the BLINC lab) over the finish line of her graduate studies. Rory Dawson and McNiel Keri (recently graduated MSc Student) had previously challenged her to the race, but since McNiel had already moved away to Calgary to start med school he was only able to symbolically run the race by being attached to Rory’s bluetooth speaker. Several other lab members joined in to walk the first lap of the race and cheer on the runners.
A re-enactment of the photo finish. Aïda was so fast she leafed us all behind.
On March 13th, our undergraduate research students presented their progress in their projects at the 2019 Festival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities held at the University of Alberta.
On October 28th, we presented two of our most recent projects at the 2018 IEEE Life Sciences Conference in Quebec, Canada. These projects included development of advanced lower-limb prostheses sensors and development and assessment of myoelectric training tools.
Both projects were awarded best paper award and best poster award. Congrats McNiel and James! Read more here.
On November 7th, we presented 7 of our most recent projects at the 2018 Spotlight on Innovation: Health to Home conference. These projects included development of advanced prostheses control, development of modular prosthetic sockets, novel gait assessment methods, and prostheses performance assessment protocols.
Also, we got to learn about different projects and how to move the technologies we have from our lab to the homes of our patients. Thanks for the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital and Alberta Health Services for organizing this conference.
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