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MIT Portugal’s Bioengineering group recently opened the lectures in its Biomedical Devices and Technologies module to researchers across Portugal’s academic and corporate research communities, providing insights into leading-edge computational models and technologies for advanced prostheses and other devices.
The module, which was delivered January 4-15, 2010 at IST in Lisbon, was led by faculty from IST, the University of Minho, and MIT. One of the objectives of this year’s course was to bring together three of the most important stakeholders in this field—academia, medicine and industry—in order to provide an integrated view of the subject to the students. A website had been launched inviting participants from other Portuguese institutions to attend the general lectures, with the explicit intention being to extend the impact of the module and that of its guest speakers.
More than 30 Master’s and doctoral researchers responded, from institutions including IST, the New University of Lisbon, and the University of Minho, as well as from the Faculty of Human Mobility (FMH-Technical University of Lisbon) and the Engineering Institute of Coimbra (ISEC).
Encouraging Sector Development
 Dr. Ricardo Marcelino of Otto Bock demonstrates vacuum coupling performance on a prosthesis used by paralymic athlete Dárcio Fernandes Researchers from industry who were present included Dr. Ricardo Marcelino of global mobility technology company Otto Bock; he joined with Portuguese paralympic athlete Dárcio Fernandes to demonstrate various prostheses for running. The CEO of Plux Wireless Biosignals, Dr. Hugo Gamboa, described his company’s research-to-market process. And a team of medical doctors from the D. Estefânia Hospital in Lisbon lectured on understanding neurological syndromes in children who may need medical devices, and on assistive seating applications.
Prof. Miguel Silva of IST, the module leader in Portugal, said he and his colleagues were pleased that their work in this topic engaged such a diverse group from the higher education and corporate research sectors. "We were gratified by this successful outreach to young researchers from outside the MIT Portugal Bioengineering course. We believe that our approach to research and training in biomedical devices and technologies can have a significant impact on the development of this sector in Portugal, and the participation of so many researchers from across Portugal these two weeks helps us achieve that impact."
The module’s practical concerns reflected Prof. Silva’s research as Principal Investigator on the DACHOR project, funded by the 2008 FCT Open Research Call, which aims at the development of a hybrid-active Ankle-Foot Orthosis to promote locomotion of people with gait pathologies and to promote their quality of life. The DACHOR project is a partnership of researchers from IST, the University of Minho, and MIT.
The co-organizer of the module was Prof. Jorge Martins of IST, also the co-leader with Prof. Silva of the Biomechatronics Research Group.
The core academic lectures included:
- Hybrid Human (Dava Newman, MIT)
- Introduction to Muscles, Reflexes and Locomotion (Hugh Herr and Diana Young, MIT)
- Powered Leg Prostheses and Orthoses (Hugh Herr and Diana Young, MIT)
- Interfacing Machines with Humans (Laurence Young, MIT*)
- Multibody Analysis and Simulation of Human Movement (Miguel Silva, IST)
- From Robot Force Control to Bipedal Locomotion (Jorge Martins, IST)
- Computational Modelling of Orthotic Devices (Paulo Fernandes, IST)
- Cardiovascular Devices (Luis Rocha, U Minho)
- Cognitive-based Neural Prosthetics (Estela Bicho, U Minho)
- Contact-impact models for dynamics of grasping in robotics (Paulo Flores, U Minho)
* While in Portugal, Prof. Young, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at MIT and a former NASA Payload Specialist Astronaut, took part in the “MIT Professors Visit Schools” program, in which MIT faculty promote science and technology at Portuguese high schools. He talked about possible future Mars missions before an overflow crowd at Lisbon’s Escola Secundária de Camões. |
