Congratulations, Ben! Ben Shuman Passes His Ph.D. General Exam

Congratulations to Benjamin Shuman for passing his general exam! He is now officially a Ph.D. Candidate.

Ben’s Ph.D. committee agreed his scientific work to date and proposed final gait modeling project will culminate in the award of his Ph.D. in one year’s time.

To celebrate, a fellow lab member created a humorous photo with Ben’s face pasted into a movie still-frame. Congratulations again, Ben!

Jessica Zistatsis Successfully Defends Her Master’s Thesis

Jessica Zistatsis has successfully defended her Master’s Thesis here at the University of Washington, in Dr. Steele’s Ability & Innovation Lab.

To complete her Master’s in full, Jessica will be submitting and disseminating her thesis, A Passive Pediatric Exoskeleton to Improve the Walking Ability of Children with Neuromuscular Disorders.

To begin watching Jessica’s defense, you may view Part 1 on YouTube HERE, or directly below:


A silly congratulations graphic made by the lab depicting the fictional Godzilla stomping through downtown Seattle, while wearing PlayGait, the pediatric exoskeleton Jessica worked on for her masters. Test within the photo reads, "Congrats on destroying your defense, Jessica!"Our lab could not be more proud! To help celebrate her successful defense, the lab drafted a flyer depicting an empowered Godzilla wearing PlayGait, Jessica’s pediatric exoskeleton. Here’s hoping future children will use their newfound superpowers for good, unlike our friend in this picture!

 

Congratulations Keshia! Nominee for UW Distinguished Staff Awards

Our team posed around Keshia at the celebration for the nominees.Today we all headed over to the HUB to celebrate one of our awesome research scientists, Keshia Peters.

Keshia was nominated for the University of Washington Distinguished Staff Award – the staff award for the whole university!

While we got to enjoy cupcakes, lemonade, and practice our silent standing wave this celebration honored all nominees. We have to wait a few weeks for the final awardees to be announced. Good luck Keshia and thanks for all you do for the lab!

Dr. Heather Feldner named KL2 Scholar, 2018 Cohort

Heather Feldner is pictured in a headshotWe are very proud to announce that Dr. Heather Feldner has been named a KL2 Scholar. Heather is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ability & Innovation Lab, and has received support through 2021 to pursue one of her missions of improving mobility interventions for young children with movement challenges.

Project Title: Improving translational capacity in early powered mobility intervention: Investigating the socio-emotional impacts of modified ride-on car use by children with disabilities and their families

To learn more, click this link.