Engineer’s Work Spotlighted; Scholar Wins Speaking Competition

Accolades is an occasional News Center feature that highlights recent accomplishments of UT Dallas faculty and students. To submit items for consideration, contact your school’s communication manager. 

Lower-Limb Exoskeleton Research Featured in IEEE magazine

The work of Dr. Robert Gregg, assistant professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering, was recently featured on the cover of IEEE Control Systems Magazine. Gregg’s Locomotor Control Systems Laboratory explores various innovations that assist individuals with mobility, including lower-limb exoskeletons.

“I was very excited and proud to see they selected our work,” Gregg said. “Our innovation is a design and control methodology for individuals who have weakened control of their lower extremities. Creating a light and compact exoskeleton with meaningful assistance is a difficult challenge, but it will benefit many people.”

Gregg’s December 2018 article included a new design and control methodology for an exoskeleton meant to support the knee and ankle and also to provide gravity support and inertia compensation. The device is intended to help individuals initiate movement and assists with obstacles such as stairs. It does not provide the total movement control that a heavier exoskeleton would.

Exoskeletons currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration are big and bulky and intended for people who have little or no control of their lower extremities, such as patients with severe spinal cord injuries. Gregg’s team has focused on producing lighter exoskeletons for individuals who have less severe issues, such as minor stroke recovery.

The lighter exoskeleton design has passed an initial validation and will begin patient testing next. A video of the prototype is available on Gregg’s YouTube channel, Bionic Locomotion.

Gregg was named a Fellow, Eugene McDermott Professor in 2018. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

McDermott Scholar Wins Oratorical Competition

Patrick Nnoromele, a molecular biology freshman and Eugene McDermott Scholar, won the top prize in the Oratorical Contest at the annual Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference.

Nnoromele’s victory marked the fourth consecutive first-place award for the University. Jonathan Cipriani, a mechanical engineering senior, was runner-up.

The University sent 30 student leaders to the conference, held in January at Texas A&M University. Competitors had less than a week to write, memorize and practice their speeches on the topic: “How would you, as a black leader, make America great to include all communities?”

Nnoromele said he was grateful for the opportunity to participate in the event.

“The Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference empowered me to share my thoughts and opinions on matters of significance,” he said. “On that day, my story became a piece of the colorful mosaic that is the black experience, and I am humbled to have been provided the opportunity to share my perspectives before such an enthusiastic and supportive crowd.”