[Faculty] Seminar by Dr. Patrick Aubin on “Design and Discovery:,Biorobotic Systems and the Human Sensorimotor Control System”: March 8, 1PM

[Kee Moon]

Dear Colleagues,

The ERC faculty search committee would like to inform you a seminar by 
Dr. Aubin on “Design and Discovery: Biorobotic Systems and the Human 
Sensorimotor Control System” on Friday, March 8, 2013. Please note that 
the seminar is at 1:00PM. We would be highly honored if you can spare 
some time from your busy schedule to attend the seminar. We would like 
to invite all you students to attend the seminar as well. For your 
information, the faculty candidate’s resume is attached. Further, we 
would appreciate it if you can join the following meetings with the 
faculty candidate:

11:00-11:30am         Group meeting with ME/ECE faculty, ME Conference room
11:30am                    Lunch in Faculty Club, ECE/ME faculty

Thanks and regards,


Kee

------------------------------------

Faculty Candidate Seminar

Speaker Name:

Dr. Patrick Aubin

Date:  Friday, March 8, 2013 - 1:00PM

Location: COE Dean’s Conference room

Design and Discovery:
Biorobotic Systems and the Human Sensorimotor Control System

In this talk I will describe a duality that exists between a rigorous 
scientific understanding of the underlying biomechanical and 
neurological principles of human movement, and the development of novel 
robotic technologies that improve the human condition.  My approach is 
to study living subjects and develop cadaveric models to understand the 
ingenious neurological, sensorimotor, and musculoskeletal systems of the 
human body.  I then utilize this knowledge to develop biomechatronic 
technologies that augment human performance or improve mobility and 
function for those affected by disease, age or trauma.  I will 
demonstrate how dynamic cadaveric lower limb gait models can serve as a 
tool to understand the biological function of the foot and ankle, as 
well as to investigate the efficacy of surgical treatments and examine 
disease etiology. I will also describe how our understanding of gait 
biomechanics has contributed to the development of soft wearable robotic 
exosuits, novel systems which aim to augment human performance during 
walking and heavy load carrying.  Within the upper extremity, I will 
focus on two systems: 1) the Isolated Orthosis for Thumb Actuation 
(IOTA), a 2-degrees-of-freedom pediatric thumb exoskeleton for at-home 
rehabilitation that utilizes neuroplasticity to retrain and improve a 
child’s fine motor control skills; and 2) Kin-Neural, a novel 
diagnostics and monitoring test for Parkinson’s disease based on 
wearable wireless inertial sensors. Looking forward, a collaborative 
approach between engineering, medicine, and science will lead to next 
generation brain-computer interfaces which will improve the function of 
these aforementioned robotic technologies.  This integration of brain 
control into smart wearable devices has the potential to enable faster 
rehabilitation, more intuitive control of assistive robotic systems, and 
greater performance augmentation for healthy individuals.

Biosketch:
Patrick Aubin’s research spans robotics and biomechanics with 
applications in medicine and rehabilitation. Dr. Aubin received his 
B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering with a 
concentration in robotics and controls from the University of 
Washington, Seattle, WA, in 2004, 2006 and 2010, respectively. He 
developed a passion for gait analysis and foot biomechanics while 
working as a Research Assistant at the Center of Excellence for Limb 
Loss Prevention and Prosthetic Engineering within the Department of 
Veterans Affairs, Seattle, WA.  Dr. Aubin was a Whitaker International 
Biomedical Scholar and a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship grantee at Vilnius 
Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius, Lithuania from 2010 to 2012, 
where he directed a team of researchers from the Neurology Center and 
the Departments of Biomechanics and Electronic Systems to develop a 
novel Parkinson’s disease diagnostic and monitoring device.  Currently, 
Dr. Aubin is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute for 
Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, where he is 
developing and evaluating upper and lower extremity next generation 
wearable robotic systems for performance augmentation and rehabilitation 
within the Institute’s Anticipatory Medical and Cellular Devices 
Platform and the Biologically Inspired Robotics Platform.  Dr. Aubin is 
a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 
and the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB).

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