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About

The Closed Loop Engineering for Advanced Rehabilitation core (CLEAR) is a joint enter­prise between NC State (NCSU) and The Uni­ver­sity of North Car­olina-CH (UNC). CLEAR fac­ulty are com­mit­ted to improv­ing the lives of indi­vid­u­als with dis­abil­i­ties by study­ing basic sci­ence in neu­ro­me­chan­ics, sen­so­ri­mo­tor inte­gra­tion, tis­sue bio­me­chan­ics and devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive and effec­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion and assis­tive tech­nolo­gies. The CLEAR core tightly col­lab­o­rates with UNC and other local hos­pi­tals and indus­try part­ners in our effort to trans­late new knowl­edge and tech­nolo­gies to stake­hold­ers (i.e. clin­ics, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties and their fam­i­lies, and the bio­med­ical industry).​

History

In 2010, the inau­gural Co- Interim Direc­tors; Dr. Richard Wysk in the depart­ment of Indus­trial & Sys­tems Engi­neer­ing at NC State and Dr. Richard Segal who was with the depart­ment of Allied Health Sci­ences at UNC, came together to develop and shape the Rehabilitation Engineering Core (REC) along with sup­port of both Dr. Louis Martin- Vega, Dean, Col­lege of Engi­neer­ing at NCSU and Dr. Nancy Allbrit­ton, Chair, Joint Depart­ment of Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing UNC/ NCSU.

 

Dr.’s Segal and Wysk quickly estab­lished core facil­i­ties on both cam­puses to sup­port human move­ment analy­sis, the study of tis­sue bio­me­chan­ics, elec­tro­phys­i­o­log­i­cal stud­ies, rapid pro­to­typ­ing, and robot­ics. They insti­tuted sev­eral pro­grams, such as the annual REC Sym­po­sium and the REC Seed Grant Pro­gram, both are designed to cul­ti­vate inter­dis­ci­pli­nary research and inno­va­tion between NC State and UNC. They also initiated a search for a Director of the Core.

 

In November of 2011, Joanie M. Moritz-Smith hired as Lead Coordinator for the Core, assisting the Co-Interim Directors.

 

2012 - LOTS OF COOL THINGS HAPPEN!

Symposia. Pilot Grants, Seminar Series, Website, Faculty Directory, Senior Design Project, and efforts to form an MSP&O program initiated

 

Faculty hires ‘12-’13:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(left to right)

Helen Huang, Associate Professor (BME, Rehab Engineering Thrust)

Jacque Cole, Assistant Professor (BME, Regenerative Medicine Thrust)

Matt Fisher, Assistant Professor (Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Translational Regenerative Medicine)
Kate Saul, Associate Professor (NCSU-MAE)
Brian Pietrosimone (UNC-EXSS)

 

In 2013, Rick Segal leaves UNC PT for MUSC. Michael Lewek, PT, Ph.D. (UNC-PT) appointed a co-interim director based at UNC.

 

August 2014 sees Helen Huang appointed Director of the Core while Mike Lewek and Rick Wysk become Associate Directors for the Core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More hires take place in 2014-2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(left to right)

Jason Franz, Assistant Professor (BME, Rehab Engineering Thrust)

Xiaogang Hu, Assistant Professor (BME, Rehab Engineering Thrust)

Debbie Givens appointed Director of UNC-PT

 

 

 

Faculty hires 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek Kamper, Associate Professor (BME, Rehab Engineering Thrust)

Join BME in Congratulating Dr. Helen Huang—
The New Director of The Rehabilitation Engineering Center!

Please join us in offering Professor Helen Huang your warmest congratulations on her recent appointment as the director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Center (REC) at NC State and UNC. The REC, like BME itself, unites the University of North Carolina and NC State University in order to encourage and engender groundbreaking collaborative science between the two institutions.  The Co-Interim Director of the Center, Dr. Rick Wysk, commented that Dr. Huang is the “perfect person for this opportunity.” Louis Martin-Vega, the Dean of NC State’s College of Engineering, in addition to offering his congratulations, noted that he “looks forward to her leadership in this very special and unique effort in our College!” With her innovative research in the creation of neural-machine interfacing technologies, Dr. Huang is perfectly positioned and qualified to lead the Rehabilitation Engineering Center as it continues to prosper and grow. Congratulations to Helen on this exciting new step in her career!

REC History at a Glance

Here we high­light some suc­cess­ful research within the REC.

· Bioin­spired, wear­able ankle- foot orthotics for stroke rehabilitation

· Osseoin­te­gra­tion for prosthetics

· Neural- machine inter­face for pros­thet­ics, orthotics, and reha­bil­i­ta­tion robots

· Wear­able sen­sors for move­ment eval­u­a­tion and fall prevention

· Sen­sory neural inter­face based on acoustic and opti­cal stimulation

· Self- controlled vir­tual real­ity for stroke rehabilitation

· Neural modulation

We wel­come col­lab­o­ra­tions from local, national, and inter­na­tional researchers in reha­bil­i­ta­tion sci­ence and engi­neer­ing as well as part­ner­ships from local prac­tice and tech­nol­ogy com­pa­nies. Our goal is to improve the qual­ity of life of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties in North Car­olina, the Nation and the World.

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