UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
            COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

                            presents

           "Have You Tried Eating Soup with a Fork?"

                       Dr. Rui Loureiro 
                 (Middlesex University, UK)

                    2 February 2011  (Wednesday)
                      Meeting Room LD454 

                  Hatfield, College Lane Campus
                            1 -2  pm


                  Everyone is Welcome to Attend

                  Refreshments will be available

Abstract:

Neurorehabilitation incurs considerable costs to health care systems in
Europe, USA and Japan. Cerebrovascular accidents, often called `stroke'
are one of the leading causes of disability in the UK alone. Several
authors have already proposed the use of robotics for the delivery of this
type of physiotherapy. There is now a need to test whether robot-mediated
therapies can be effectively delivered in a home environment to reduce 
impairment and disability, and therefore reducing the rehabilitation 
associated costs. Low cost modular portable systems can also provide 
patients with the opportunity to work as hard as they want to on a 
particular disability. This talk will examine the design principles for 
engaging human-machine interaction in neurehabilitation with a particular 
focus on studies with the Gentle/G system facilitating reach and grasp 
therapy and new insights in collaborative rehabilitation.



Short Bio:

Dr Rui Loureiro is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering and
Information Sciences, Middlesex University where directs the Human
Interactive Systems Laboratory (HumanIS Lab) that he founded in 2010.
Prior to joining Middlesex he enjoyed senior research appointments at the
University of Reading, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and
engineering consultancies at Synectic Design LTD. Rui specialises in
haptics and robotics for medical and rehabilitation engineering and has
pioneered work in robot-aided stroke neurorehabilitation and movement
disorders. He is associated with a number of professional organisations,
was PI and co-I in a number of high-profile EU funded projects, holds five
patents, and has published widely in the areas of rehabilitation,
orthotics, robotics and control.


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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.stca.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq