CLEAR.
CLOSED LOOP ENGINEERING for ADVANCED REHABILITATION
Research Emphases
CLEAR Research Community
Upcoming Seminars
Assistant Professor
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Additional Rehab Related Seminars, Talks & Meetings
Rehab Labs Research Meetings
When: 1st Friday of the Month from 9:30am — 10:30am
Dates: See calendar
Locations: Engineering Building III, Room 4142 & Mary Ellen Jones, Room 9010A
About: The seminar series serves as an opportunity for students to present research progress and obtain feedback from faculty and their peers. For faculty/ postdocs, the meetings serve as a platform to share grant submission ideas and solicit feedback.
Recent Presenters
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
April 5, 2024
Dr. R James Cotton, MD, PhD; Physician-Scientist at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab and Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University
Topic: AI Powered Movement Analysis, Big Rehabilitation Data and a Path to Precision Rehabilitation
Dr. Cotton's talk will discussed multiple methodological lines of work making movement and gait analysis more clinically accessible and biomechanically grounded. This includes reconstruction from synchronized multiview videos, smartphone videos, and wearable sensors. He also discussed how implicit functions provide a powerful representation to map from time to joint angles, and GPU accelerated methods that enable end-to-end biomechanical fits from these different modalities.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
February 2, 2024
Eran Dayan, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Department of Radiology,
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Topic: Measures of Resilience in the Healthy and Diseased Brain
Dr. Dayan described recent work from his lab, where they developed methods for quantifying resilience in the healthy and
diseased brain. Implications for neurorehabilitation were also be discussed.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
December 1, 2023
Daniel Roque, M.D.; Associate Professor, Vice Chair for Ambulatory Affairs, UNC Neurology, and Director, UNC Movement Disorders Neuromodulation Program
Topic: Advancing the Success of Management for Tremor Disorders: Lessons Learned and Future Opportunities
Dr. Roque presented his research and active collaborations as well as review potential opportunities where biomedical engineering innovations may offer meaningful relief for millions of patients across the United States alone.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
November 3, 2023
Miriam Rafferty, Ph.D.; Director of Implementation Science and a Research Scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine
Topic: Connecting Engineering to Clinical Implementation: Designing for AcceleRated Translation of Rehabilitation Technology
Dr. Rafferty's talk presented examples of how to accomplish three key actions: (1) utilizing meaningful clinical and community partnerships, (2) designing innovations for dissemination and implementation using human-centered design, and (3) collaboration between researchers and clinicians in learning health systems, and the factors she had found to be most influential related to the initial pace of uptake, implementation, and scalability of rehabilitation technology.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
June 2, 2023
Peter Shull, Ph.D., Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Topic: Wearable Systems for Biomedical Applications and Human Computer Interaction
Dr. Shull's talk presented an overview of various research topics related to wearable systems including wrist-worn hand gesture recognition, wearable gait and posture assessment and training, soft wearable haptics, and cellphone AR rehabilitation.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
March 10, 2023
He (Helen) Huang, Ph.D., Jackson Family Distinguished Professor in the joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Topic: Neural Engineering in Motor Rehabilitation
Dr. Huang's talk focused on her sabbatical leave in the spring of 2022, and she discussed several interesting research projects that she observed and potential collaborations that can be built between CLEAR and these colleagues in neural engineering in the future.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
February 03, 2023
Dr. Joachim Hermsdörfer, Professor, Technical University of Munich
Topic: Grip force control in healthy persons and patients with brain damage
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
December 02, 2022
Dr. Katie Poggensee, Postdoctoral Researcher at T.U. Delft
Topic: Altering balance with a lightweight gyroscopic robotic actuator
Dr. Poggensee's talk described a wearable robotic backpack designed to assist (or perturb) balance. Prior versions of the device have improved standing and walking balance in healthy and post-stroke populations, intentionally perturbed the trunk during standing, and altered swing leg kinematics during walking. The newest iteration has greater functionality, in a smaller form-factor, enabling more complex conditions (e.g., assisting balance across multiple axes) and facilitating use among patient populations. She discussed the results from the previous version as well as future experiments and other uses for this novel actuator.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
November 04, 2022
Dr. Yasin Dhaher, Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation | Orthopaedic Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Topic: Exploring the modulatory effect of spinal track activation on afferent mediated changes in motoneuron excitability in humans
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
October 07, 2022
Dr. James Finley, Associate Professor, Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California
Topic: Learning to Take Advantage of Assistance + ReproRehab
Dr. Finley's talk described his recent work on how people learn to acquire and accept assistance when adapting to walking on a split-belt treadmill. Understanding the strategies people use to modify their gait and the timescales over which this learning occurs is critical for designing effective algorithms that can provide assistance while adapting to changes in the user’s behavior.
Dr. Finley also described ongoing work with the ReproRehab Program. Through this program, his team provides training resources to help rehabilitation researchers develop the data science skills necessary to improve the reproducibility and replicability of their research. He also gave an overview of the ReproRehab curriculum, demonstrated a simple example of a reproducible analysis pipeline, and provided information for anyone interested in joining his next cohort of learners or teaching assistants.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
September 02, 2022
Dr. Philipp Gulde, Chair of Human Movement Science, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Topic: Everyday Life in Numbers - From Lab to World
Dr. Gulde's talk introduced the clinical value of kinematic assessments, how validity can benefit from measuring outside the lab, why it is worth a try to go beyond energy expenditure, and the potential of wearables to go beyond energy expenditure by kinematic analyses outside the lab.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
June 03, 2022
Dr. Sang Wook Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Catholic University of America
Topic: Impaired Motor Control of Bimanual Action Following Stroke: Understanding Learned Nonuse
Dr. Lee's talk presented results from a series of studies that examined functional deficits of stroke survivors affecting their arm choice and bimanual action, which could help us better understand the learned nonuse phenomenon.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
May 06, 2022
Dr. Amy N. Adkins, Assistant Teaching Professor, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, UNC Chapel Hill & NC State University
Topic: Validation and Implementation of Multiscale Imaging Techniques for Quantifying Muscle Function and Plasticity
Dr. Adkin's talk established confidence in the ability to reliably quantify multiscale in vivo muscle structure (from the sarcomere scale to whole muscle) using minimally invasive imaging techniques and demonstrate the extent to which current approaches can detect structural adaptation in human muscle.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
April 01, 2022
Dr. Roger Cornwall,
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Clinical Director, Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics
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Director, Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery Fellowship
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Professor, UC Department of Orthopedic Surgery
Topic: Shifting the Paradigm of Neuromuscular Contractures: A Little Medicine to Prevent a Lot of Surgery
Dr. Cornwall's talk told the story of how a clinical problem encountered during the surgical treatment of contractures following brachial plexus birth injury led to basic biological discoveries reshaping our understanding and potentially our treatment of neuromuscular contractures.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
March 04, 2022
Student Presentations:
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Chelsea "CJ" Parker (Dr. Lewek's Lab), Subtle Variations in Metronome Cues can Alter Gait Without Conscious Awareness to Promote Implicit Learning
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Emily Eichenlaub (Dr. Franz's Lab), The Neuromechanics of Anticipated and Unanticipated Balance Perturbations During Standing and Walking
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Morgan Dalman (Dr. Saul's Lab), Computational Modeling of Glenohumeral Contact and Translation
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Miranda Ludovice (Dr. Kamper's Lab), The Impact of Finger Length and Posture on Muscle Activation Patterns Using OpenSim
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Wentao Liu (Dr. Huang's Lab), Inferring Human-Robot Performance Objectives during Locomotion using Inverse Reinforcement Learning
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Febuary 04, 2022
Presenters: Gedas Bertasius, Henry Fuchs, Daniel Szafir, and Danielle Szafir
UNC Dept of Computer Science
Topic: The group discussed their own research and a new joint project, Augmented Reality Neurorehabilitation for Monitoring and Management of Motor Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, which they have started with collaborators Professors Michael Lewek (Physical Therapy) and Nina Browner (Neurology). Topics of discussion included computer vision, egocentric motion tracking, virtual and augmented reality, human-robot interaction, and data visualization.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
December 03, 2021
Dr. Karen Boru Chen, Assistant Professor, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, NC State University
Topic: Interfacing with virtual environments through bio-signals and bodily motions – integration and application
Dr. Chen's talk presented information about the integration and application of bio-signals and bodily motions to interface with VR.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
October 01, 2021
Dr. Pedro Lopes, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago
Topic: Integrating Interactive Devices With the User’s Body
Dr. Lopes discussed his work on bodily-integrated devices, which he believes are the natural succession to wearable interfaces and allow us to investigate how interfaces might connect to our bodies in a more direct and personal way.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
September 03, 2021
Dr. Rinku Roy, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Topic: Prediction of Fingertip force and Joint Kinematics of Individual Fingers using Motoneuron Firing Activities
Dr. Roy discussed her use of the Neural-drive approach with advanced assistive robotic hands that can help individuals with hand impairment perform daily activities.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
May 07, 2021
Dr. Amay Bandodkar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NC State University
Topic: Unconventional biochemical sensors and energy devices for applications in wearables and neuro-engineering
Dr. Bandodkar's research interests include working at the interface of electronics, materials science, and biology to realize next-generation conformal sensors and energy devices with broad applications in wearables, implants, and distributed systems.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
April 02, 2021
Dr. Hoon Kim, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Topic: Decoding neuromuscular features in ankle muscles: Wavelet transformed EMG signals
Dr. Kim's work examines mobility in older adults and he uses musculoskeletal simulations to understand how gait changes as humans age. Dr. Kim is a Postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jason Franz's laboratory.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
March 05, 2021
Dr. Helen Huang, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineerinig, University of Central Florida
Topic: Advancing multimodal neuromechanics and understanding of locomotor adaptation
Dr. Huang presented her team’s research on advancing sensor development and methods for using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) to study brain dynamics in multimodal neuromechanics experiments of human locomotion and locomotor adaptation. She also discussed recent findings on brain responses to perturbations during a seated locomotor task and gait stability responses to small perturbations applied on a stride-by-stride basis during walking.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Feb 05, 2021
Dr. Karl Newell, Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia
Dr. Newell's presentation focused on the learning of new patterns of coordination in human movement. This a property of skill acquisition that has been underplayed in the traditions of motor learning due to the selection of so-called ‘simple’ low degrees of freedom (DF) tasks or those tasks where the individual can already produce the qualitative properties of the coordination pattern. The role of order parameters/collective variables from a dynamic systems framework is considered as essential to the early formative stage of skill acquisition. Theoretical, experimental and practical implications and challenges of this approach to the learning of movement forms will be discussed.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Dec 04, 2020
Dr. Varun Nalam (Postdoc Fellow, Mentor: Helen Huang)
Dr. Nalam's presentation discussed understanding how humans modulate their ankle behavior during various tasks could aid in advancement of assistive and rehabilitative care of people suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. The research presented in this talk focuses on quantifying ankle impedance modulation during balance and walking in different environments and its implications in development of patient specific rehabilitation protocols for people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis and Stroke.
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Nov 13, 2020
Topic: Rehabilitation Research and Engineering Center: Collaborative Machines Enhancing Therapies (COMET)
Speakers: Dr. Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi (Northwestern U/ Shirley Ryan AbilityLab)
Body-Machine Interface: Recovering muscle control
Dr. Heike Vallery (TU Delft)
GyroBalance: Adaptive wearable balance trainer
Dr. Arun Jayaraman (Shirley Ryan AbilityLab/ Northwestern U)
Soft Exosuit: Variable collaborative assistance for functional
gait recovery in stroke
Dr. James Patton (University of Illinois at Chicago/ Shirley Ryan AbilityLab)
Augmentation Exoskeletons: Smart passive devices for arm
function recovery
Dr. David Reinkensmeyer (University of California, Irvine)
Wearable Sensing: Custom feedback for encouraging
movement practice
Past Presenters
Oct 02, 2020
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Dr. Blaise Morrison, Assistant Professor, Department of Allied Health Sciences, Division of Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling
Dr. Morrison's presentation highlighted the need for family-system interventions that target psychosocial adjustment and community participation after brain injury. Dr. Morrison also provided an overview of his research program and intervention development plan.
Sep 04, 2020
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Dr. Quentin Sanders (ARRT Postdoc Fellow, Mentor: Derek Kamper)
Dr. Sanders discussed how to optimize the usage of wearable robotic technologies for hand rehabilitation after stroke and demonstrated the progress being made by considering three key areas: usership patterns of wearable hand sensing technology in real-world settings, sensory and motor control of the hand after stroke, and the mechanical design and intuitive control of wearable soft robotic technologies for the hand.
Sep 04, 2020
Joint Rehab/Regen Monthly Meeting
Emily McCain (Graduate Student, Adviser: Kate Saul)
Emily McCain discussed her ASB presentation: Using a custom 3d printed ankle stay and a lockable DonJoy knee brace this research imposed unilateral, joint-specific restrictions in range of motion (ROM) to provide insight into what gait adaptations are solely the result of isolated joint deficits and which are the result of simultaneous multi-joint impairments. This framework allowed us to separate the relative impact of ankle versus knee restriction and understand their interaction on mechanical compensations and the resultant energetic penalties during walking. We hope our results can help optimize future designs of rehabilitative techniques and technology by providing insight into trade-offs of intervening at one lower-limb joint versus another.
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