Engineering to enhance human mobility, play, and exploration
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 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:
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!
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!
We 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.
Thanks to AccessEngineering and other DO-IT programs, I don’t feel like I’m pursuing my education alone, or that I have to figure out how to overcome obstacles that others don’t have to by myself.
AccessEngineering, an interdisciplinary universal design program co-led by Dr. Kat Steele at the University of Washington, was featured on the College of Engineering’s news webpage.
Since it’s launch in 2014, AccessEngineering has sought to champion the development of a diverse, well-prepared workforce of engineering graduates and university faculty. One of the key ways that this program seeks to promote this agenda is by increasing general participation of individuals with disabilities in engineering. AccessEngineering also aims to promote their core goals by improving engineering education. The primary means by which this group seeks to enrich the curriculum is by integrating disability-related and universal design content into engineering courses.
Dr. Kat Steele coordinates AccessEngineering at the UW with Dr. Maya Cakmak, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler, director of UW Access Technology and the DO-IT Center.
To read about AccessEngineering program as posted on College of Engineering website, follow this LINK, or visit the program’s website.