Osteoarthritis Research

While I was rehabbing from my ACL surgery to return to the court, I stumbled upon a fun research project through the Stanford Human Performance lab. I because a research assistant for a project aimed at developing a device that would use haptics to re-train the gait of patients with osteoarthritis. The premise of the idea was to use EMG electrodes to detect activity in the soleus (calf muscle) and to vibrate an actuator on the leg to indicate that the person was activating the muscle too much. By training them in a lab, this could help re-train how someone’s walk and reduce knee pain over time.

My role was to make the device work. I assembled the PCB/ circuit, designed the enclosure for the device, and troubleshooted with it in a 2 month period to ensure it was functional and was properly integrated with Cionic’s software.