Education

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce engineering principles and provide a foundation in rehabilitation engineering, a field dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities. This course provides an introduction to rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology, an understanding of rehabilitation technology terminology and standards, and an awareness of issues facing engineers, researchers, clinicians, and individuals with disabilities in the design, development and use of rehabilitation and assistive technology.

Course Topics

Fundamentals of Rehabilitation Engineering Design
Biomechanical Analysis of Human Movement
Universal Design and Accessibility
Prosthetics and Orthotics
Wheelchair and Crutch Design
Wheelchair Safety, Standards and Testing
Recreational Devices and Vehicles
Rehabilitation Robotics
Virtual Reality Rehabilitation
Functional Electrical Stimulation and Exoskeletons

Course Description

This course is required for mechanical engineering undergraduate students. Students take an idea that has potential to help individuals with disabilities and develop the design to prototype phases. They learn about the design process, develop ways to be creative, cultivate teamwork skills, and discover how to ultimately benefit the community. The course gives students the opportunity to work on 'real-world' problems in a structured amount of time. The training that these students receive through this course will strengthen their job prospects.

Course Topics

Creativity, Conceptualization, Design Processes, and Design Synthesis
Engineering Ethics, Social Impact, and Professionalism
Computer Aided Design
Lectures: Resumes, Job Interviews, Patents and Licensing, and Entrepreneurship
Cost Analysis
Written Communications and Oral Communication
Evolution of Products based on Need, Function and Technology
Human Factors in Design
Engineering Materials, Product Performance and Consumer Product Design

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to understand the science and engineering of mechanical manipulation and kinematics. The course introduces students to special coordinate frames and 3D transformations. It describes the kinematics and inverse kinematics of robotic manipulators and the velocities/forces affecting their motion. It also introduces students to various ways to generate 3D trajectories and control manipulators in a linear and nonlinear fashion. Matlab programming and simulation is an integrated part of the course.

Course Topics

Introduction
Spatial Descriptions and Transformations
Manipulator Kinematics
Inverse Manipulator Kinematics
Jacobian: Velocities and Static Forces
Manipulator Dynamics
Trajectory Generation
Manipulator Mechanism Design
Linear/Nonlinear Control of Manipulators
Robot Programming and Simulation

Course Description

This class will introduce the field of haptics as it relates to creating touch feedback in simulated and virtual environments. Students will learn about human haptic sensing and control, haptic interfaces (tactile and force), teleoperation, haptic rendering, modeling, control and stability of virtual environments, and how to program these implementations on a SensAble Phantom Omni (shown on the top right). The Haptics class serves as an elective for undergraduate or graduate students interested in robotics, biomechanics, and related fields.

Course Topics

Control/stability of feedback in virtual environments and robotic systems
Haptic Interfaces
Teleoperation Control Systems
Haptic Rendering
Modeling
Human Sensory Capabilities
Statistics
Programming

Course Description

This course is an introduction to robotics. Students will learn the fundamentals of robotics, algorithms for designing robot motion and examples of robotic systems.

Course Topics

Basics of robotics and linear algebra
Matlab
Homogenous transformations
Kinematic chains
DH convention
Forward and inverse kinematics
Angular velocity
Jacobian matrix
Motion planning
Sensors and actuators
Mobile robots

Course Description

The Introduction to Bioastronautics course includes the study and the support of life in space. Bioastronautics is a specialty area in space research that promotes interdisciplinary collaborations in multiple areas of engineering as well as in other scientific areas such as chemistry, biology, medicine, rehabilitation, and psychology. This course will discuss the following topics: the space environment, impacts of microgravity on human physiology, human factors in spacecraft design, astronaut training, the basics of life support system design and countermeasures and mission logistics and planning. The course will include listening to guest speakers from industry, learning about relevant NASA programs accessing resources from nearby Kennedy Space Center, and completing a small design project.

Course Topics

Atmosphere
Radiation environment
Bone and muscle loss in microgravity
Neurovestibular adaptations
Cardiovascular system adaptations
Cellular response to microgravity
Motion sickness prevention and treatment
Crew psychology
Countermeasures
Extravehicular Mobility Unit
International Space Station
Mission planning