Georgia Institute of Technology Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines

A Stellar Achievement | GT Clinician Receives Phase I Clinical Trial Funding for Prosthetics Advances 

New IRIM Research Faculty and Senior Clinical Research Scientist in the School of Mechanical Engineering Ms. Kinsey Herrin has garnered her first major grant award through the DoD’s CDMRP OPORP program. This $350K award will fund a Phase I clinical trial with above knee amputees with microprocessor knee technology, including technology from the Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  

The EPIC lab, under the leadership of Professor Aaron Young, has successful ongoing orthotics projects for powered knee/ankle prosthesis with Shriners Hospitals for Children®. Professor Young noted that Ms. Herrin drafted the grant application and justifications and is the lead clinician on the grant, “…a great accomplishment for her first year as a research scientist. This would not have been possible without her support and involvement.”

The Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab at Georgia Tech, led by Prof.  Aaron Young, is devoted to the design and improvement of powered orthotic and prosthetic control systems. The EPIC lab capabilities include the ability to characterize robotic devices and controller implementation from the ground up, starting at fabrication and bench-top testing, to controller optimization, and measuring the effects on human performance outcomes.

The goal of the CDMRP OPORP is to improve understanding and advance the implementation of the most effective prescriptions for prosthetic and orthotic devices, treatment, rehabilitation, and secondary health effect prevention options for patients, clinicians, other caregivers, and policymakers.

New IRIM Research Accolades

Congratulations to PI Matthew Gombolay and his research team for garnering a Best Paper Nomination from the 2020 Conference on Robot Learning. Held virtually from November 16 - 18, this event had a 34% acceptance rate, with only 4 papers nominated for best paper. Citation: Chen, L., Paleja, R. and Gombolay, M., “Learning from Suboptimal Demonstration via Self-Supervised Reward Regression” Proc. Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 2020. Link: https://www.robot-learning.org/program/awards

Congratulations to Robotics Ph.D. Candidate (Aero) Yosef Razin. Mr. Razin received the Edison Patent Award from the Research & Development Council of New Jersey, along with his co-inventors at Princeton Satellite Systems and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, for their patent “Method and Apparatus to Produce High Specific Impulse and Moderate Thrust from a Fusion-Powered Rocket Engine”, describing a nuclear fusion rocket engine that uses deuterium and helium-3 to produce thrust and electric power for space travel.

Call for Researcher & Student Accolades

Have you won/been nominated for an award from an academic or professional society?

Have you been invited to speak at a conference or advisory panel?

Do you have great new publications or lab news to share?

IRIM wants to know!

Enter your information in the form linked to below and we will share your news via web and social media channels, as well as keep recorded for annual progress and impact reports.