Thanks to the work of University of Utah researchers across campus advanced, futuristic prosthetics are already in the works. From robotic arms and legs to artificial muscles, professors and graduate students are leading the charge to innovate for those impacted by amputation, stroke and more.
Keep reading to learn more about these efforts.
Getting tech into people's hands: Jacob George
When Jacob George attended a summer internship program at the University of Utah in 2015, he met an individual who was experiencing limb loss and had an amputation who told him, “Losing a limb is like losing a family member, except you’re reminded of it every day.”
For George that idea hit close to home as he had lost both his father and brother. “I had lost family members. But I never really had experienced the lack of autonomy and chronic pain and disability that comes with losing a limb as well.”
George now combines his interests in engineering and medicine as a U professor in the electrical & computer engineering and physical medicine & rehabilitation departments as well as directing the Utah NeuroRobotics Lab.
Much of George’s work sounds like stuff straight out of a science fiction novel: prosthetic hands that can bring back a user’s sense of touch, exoskeletons that restore movement, wristband devices that can turn the lights off by thought, and more. This technology has become reality in his lab.
‘Understanding entrepreneurship makes you a better engineer’: Nick Witham
When Nick Witham, a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student in the bioInnovate track at the University of Utah, was looking to enroll in graduate school, he didn’t know much about entrepreneurship or how to translate his research into a commercially viable product, but he knew the U was one of the best places to learn how.
“I figured the best way to learn it is to do it,” Witham said.
The bioInnovate track for biomedical engineering graduate students is built around helping students learn how to identify clinical needs and then develop medical devices with real commercial potential. On top of the entrepreneurial training in his Ph.D. program, Witham has co-founded multiple companies, participated in multiple programs with Lassonde and more.
Witham’s research has focused on artificial muscles and biosensors. “My Ph.D. thesis is on artificial muscles made out of polymers like fishing line,” he said. “My research focus has been on making them biomimetic so that they can be used in prosthetics and also be mass producible so that using them in prosthetics is actually a future reality.”
‘Robots you can wear’: Tommaso Lenzi
University of Utah mechanical engineering professor Tommaso Lenzi has combined his background in robotics with physical medicine and rehabilitation in his lab where they are focused on developing technologies that help people move and live more independently.
“We're particularly interested in developing technologies that are robots that you can wear,” Lenzi said. “The idea is that these technologies can help you walk and operate independently even if you had some trauma or injury like amputation, stroke or even a spinal cord injury.”
Lenzi’s inventions haven’t gone unnoticed. His lab’s Utah Bionic Leg was recently named as one of Time’s 200 best inventions of 2023. “Mobility is one of the biggest societal challenges that we are currently confronting and will continue to face in the future.”
Inventions like the Utah Bionic Leg are key for those who have issues walking, climbing steps or dealing with small obstacles. For example, almost 800,000 Americans have a stroke per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many stroke survivors then develop a physical disability that impacts mobility. “We're doing a much better job dealing with stroke from a medical standpoint, but there is a much bigger need for rehabilitation,” Lenzi said.
