Thursday, 26 April 2018
18:00-20:00
T0.03, John Dalton Building
Join us for the fifth public lecture in the 2017-18 series.
April's talk is from Professor William Holderbaum, Professor in Control Engineering
Assistive Technologies for People with Impaired Mobility
According to statistics from charities such as Every Eight Hours and Spinal Research, there are an estimated 40,000 spinal cord injured (SCI) people in the UK and a new person is injured every eight hours. Spinal cord injury results in an interruption of the neurological pathway from the brain to muscles and sense organs. A complete lesion of the spinal cord at thoracic level results in paralysis of the lower limbs and the loss of voluntary control of the bladder and bowel.
In this talk I will describe a range of research and development activities aimed at providing practical assistive systems for people who have suffered spinal cord injury (SCI). I will explain the principles behind the technique known as functional electrical stimulation (FES), in which stimulation of paralysed muscles can generate muscle contraction. I will focus primarily on the development of FES systems for lower limb function carried out by us. The aim here is to restore some normal motor activities to the muscles, including standing, standing up and sitting down, stepping, and cycling. Several studies have shown that regular use of lower-limb FES systems by SCI patients can provide a number of important therapeutic benefits and improved fitness.
Refreshments will be available from 17:30 with the talk starting at 18:00. This will last around 45 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A session and a drinks reception. Please email engage@mmu.ac.uk if you have any questions.
To register, please visit: https://assistivetechnologies.eventbrite.co.uk