Hackathon Winners Create Myoelectric Prosthetic Arm
This prosthetic arm was 3-D printed and three sensor strips were placed along the forearm in order to connect the muscular neuron firing to the movement of the prosthetic arm. An artificial intelligence neural network was used by the team in order to differentiate between when specific fingers were moved. For a test, the opening of the connected hand opened the hand of the prosthetic arm.
STS major Jacob Young ’20 was interviewed and described “participating was a wonderful experince, everyone was willing to help and talk about their project. There was one sleepless night but it payed off. Additionally, I would note that my coding ability is very limited but I was able to make significant contributions to the team nonetheless.”
This prosthetic technology can harken back to the visit by STS sponsored speaker Dana Lewis; she created an affordable “artificial pancreas” to aid those with diabetes across the globe. Innovative creations such as these allow for the human dimensions of sciences to become visible and integral in medical engineering.