CLEAR.

June 20, 2025

 

Shelby Baez, Ph.D., LAT, ATC, Assistant Professor, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, UNC-CH

​

Topic:  Psychologically-informed practice to enhance health outcomes after traumatic knee injuries

​

Dr. Baez highlighted the impact of psychological factors on injury and recovery, citing a 30% risk of second ACL injuries and the development of osteoarthritis. Dr. Baez emphasized the importance of addressing fear, which can hinder recovery, using techniques like graded exposure therapy and mindfulness. She shared findings from studies on fear's influence on physical outcomes and the effectiveness of combined interventions. Dr. Baez also introduced the ACL dashboard for point-of-care research and ongoing clinical trials using VR and AR technologies to enhance rehabilitation.

​

​

​

May 23, 2025

 

Yuanqing Tian (Ching), PhD, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design, NC State University and Byungsoo Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design, NC State University

​

Topic:  From Concept to Prototype: Human-Centric Tech Projects Uniting Industrial Design and Engineering

​

Drs. Kim and Tian presented their Human Centric Technology and Design Lab's approach to creating human-centered technology solutions. They highlighted their technology-driven design process, emphasizing the integration of emerging technologies with a human-centered mindset. Key projects included a collaboration with Sloan on healthcare technology, a customizable eyewear project using parametric design, and a CDC-sponsored initiative on custom-fit respirator masks. They also discussed their usability studies, such as evaluating posture interventions and in-car interaction design, and their explorations in human-AI collaboration. 

​

​

​

March 21, 2025

 

Sevgi Gurbuz, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NC State University

​

Topic: Radar-based Gait Analysis and Remote Health Monitoring

​

Dr. Gurbuz discussed her research on radar technology applications in health monitoring. She highlighted the development of software-defined radar systems, noting Google's integration of radar transceivers in the Pixel 4 for gesture recognition. Dr. Gurbuz emphasized radar's potential in non-automotive commercial applications, such as security, human-computer interaction, and health monitoring. She detailed her work on gait analysis, fall risk assessment, and the use of micro Doppler signatures for activity recognition. Dr. Gurbuz also explored the integration of radar with other sensing systems and the challenges of developing physics-aware machine learning models for accurate health monitoring.

​

​

​

November 15, 2024

 

Geoffrey Handsfield, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics and Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & North Carolina State University

​

Topic: Advances in Imaging and Modeling for Rehabilitation Research in Cerebral Palsy

​

Dr. Handsfield presented his research on cerebral palsy, focusing on biomechanics, muscle structure, and rehabilitation. He discussed the use of MRI to create subject-specific muscle maps, revealing significant muscle volume differences in cerebral palsy patients. He highlighted the importance of muscle fiber orientation and the role of satellite cells in muscle repair, noting that cerebral palsy patients have fewer satellite cells. He also explored muscle shape differences using statistical shape modeling, finding that CP muscles are smaller and have higher aspect ratios. The research aims to improve rehabilitation strategies and understand muscle growth and architecture changes over time.

​

​

​

October 18, 2024

 

Natalie Mrachacz-Kersting, Ph.D, Professor, Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg

​

Topic: Brain-Computer Interfaces Designed for Neurorehabilitation

​

Dr. Mrachacz-Kersting presented the approach her lab has taken from the basic idea of BCIs and the underlying neurophysiology to the final BCI tested in clinical populations. She demonstrated why knowledge of the mechanisms behind memory and learning is vital for the development of rehabilitation technology, specifically BCIs, and further how factors such as plasticity induction, fatigue or even tremor may greatly impact on the system accuracy.

​

​

​

June 7, 2024

 

Jonathan Viventi, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University

​

Topic: Flexible Electronics for Neural Interfaces

​

Dr. Viventi discussed his research which uses flexible electronics to create new technology for interfacing with the brain at high resolution over large areas. He then presented how he and his team are translating this technology for human clinical use. These new tools can help diagnose and treat neurological disorders such as epilepsy, and help improve the performance of brain machine interfaces

​

​

​

May 3, 2024

 

Deanna Gates, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Movement Science at the University of Michigan

​

Topic: Improving Mobility and Balance Through Novel Approaches to Prosthetic Design and Control

​

Dr. Gates' talk focused on several of her recent and ongoing projects exploring the role of the prosthetic socket and residual musculature on mobility and falls in people with transfemoral amputation.  She also highlighted her recent work in providing volitional control of prostheses and providing sensory feedback through regenerative peripheral nerve interfaces (RPNIs). 

​

​

​

April 5, 2024

 

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 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.  

​

​

​

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.

​

​

​

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.

​

​

​

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.

​

​

​

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.

​

​

​

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. 

​

​

​

February 03, 2023

 

Dr. Joachim Hermsdörfer, Professor, Technical University of Munich

​

Topic: Grip force control in healthy persons and patients with brain damage

​

​

​

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.

​

​

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

​

​

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. 

​​

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. 

​​

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. 

​​

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. 

​​

April 01, 2022

 

Dr. Roger Cornwall,

• Clinical Director, Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics 

• Director, Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery Fellowship

• 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. 

​​

March 04, 2022

 

Student Presentations:

• Chelsea "CJ" Parker (Dr. Lewek's Lab), Subtle Variations in Metronome Cues can Alter Gait Without Conscious Awareness to Promote Implicit Learning

• Emily Eichenlaub (Dr. Franz's Lab), The Neuromechanics of Anticipated and Unanticipated Balance Perturbations During Standing and Walking

• Morgan Dalman (Dr. Saul's Lab), Computational Modeling of Glenohumeral Contact and Translation

• Miranda Ludovice (Dr. Kamper's Lab), The Impact of Finger Length and Posture on Muscle Activation Patterns Using OpenSim

• Wentao Liu (Dr. Huang's Lab), Inferring Human-Robot Performance Objectives during Locomotion using Inverse Reinforcement Learning

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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