A portable system and device that can provide crutch-free walking to a person with an injured lower limb, designed by Department of Biomedical Engineering Chair Ranu Jung, was granted a patent in July.
The system automatically initiates, terminates, and adjusts based on a combination of the user’s intent to walk and their walking speed. Jung is leading several projects focused on developing neurotechnologies to restore function to people with neurotrauma or limb loss from the Adaptive Neural Systems Laboratory housed at the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University.
Jung is the third faculty member from the department to receive a U.S. patent in the last year. She joins Associate Professor Anurahda Godavarty, who received her first patent for the design of a hand-held optical probe based imaging system with 3-D tracking facilities, and Associate Professor Shuliang Jiao, who received a U.S. patent for developing a system that provides a method of analyzing a retina comprising applying both visible and NIR light to a retina.
The patent was granted to Advensys LLC, a research and development company started by Jung and the work was supported by an Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant to Advensys LLC from the U.S. Army.