Spero Koulouras is a computer engineer by training and an entrepreneur by heart. One of his latest ventures is Auli.Tech, a company that designs open-source applications and devices enabling individuals to overcome intramuscular and vocal impairments.

In this episode, Spero discusses his journey in the tech industry and his experience with ALS diagnosis 5 years ago, which got him on the path of developing assistive technologies like Cato. Cato is a small device that uses motion recognition and AI to enable control of things such as computer mouse, keyboard, game controller, and even a harness.

**If you're a qualified Assistive Tech professional interested in giving Cato a try for FREE, please fill out this form **

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Nataliya Rokhmanova (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar) is a PhD student in the joint program between Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany and Carnegie Mellon University in the US. In this episode, we discussed the role of haptics, specifically vibro-tactile feedback, in helping humans improve the way they walk, the benefits of participating in an international PhD program, and her incredible work teaching researchers how to make their scientific figures more readable, engaging, and appealing to improve science communication.

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Dr. Alyssa Spomer (LinkedIn, Google Scholar) got her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. Her work focused on biofeedback technology to improve motor control in children with cerebral palsy and worked on understanding how interpretable machine learning methods can be used to identify factors of response to a resistive ankle exoskeleton (Biomotum).

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In this episode, I talked with Maureen Linden, an executive director of the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation at Georgia Tech and a former president of Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA). The topic of our discussion was RESNA's Guidelines and Priorities for Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation Engineering Research. We discussed several aspects of how research in rehab engineering and AT should be pursued, such as user involvement, universal design approach, science translation, and performance standards. We also went over what areas RESNA identified as research priorities to be pursued back in 2014 when the last version of the guidelines was created.

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Jessica Garries (LinkedIn) received her BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. During her undergraduate capstone project for the Engineering

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Dr. Kim Ingraham (LinkedIn, Twitter) is an assistant professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Electrical &Computer Engineering. Kim has an extensive research background creating personalized controllers for lower-limb assistive robotics, such as exoskeletons and prosthetics, and evaluating powered mobility devices for children with disabilities. In this episode, we discussed her winding path to academic research, from an internship at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to a faculty position and leading her own lab (Ingraham Lab) at the University of Washington.

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Dr. Fatma Inanici (LinkedIn, Twitter) is a research faculty at the University of Washington’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, who has started her academic career back in Turkey, studying fibromyalgia. In this episode, we talked about how she has been applying the spinal stimulation technology to restore hand function in individuals with spinal cord injury and stroke, the

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New therapy helps some regain motion lost to spinal injury

New treatment allows some people with spinal cord injury to regain hand and arm function

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Charlotte Caskey (LinkedIn) is a fifth year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington at

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Mia Hoffman is a third-year PhD student (personal page, Twitter) at the University of Washington’s Steele Lab. Her main research motto is “Let kids be kids”, and all of her work is a true reflection of it. In just two years at UW, she has engaged in multiple projects that we discussed in this episode that focus on early childhood mobility (ride-on cars and harness systems) and the development of simple switch access toolkits to improve accessibility of toys for kids of all abilities. We also discussed the importance of qualitative research in the field of assistive tech and touched on how accessibility of research environments for people with disabilities. Mia shared a great deal of useful resources with us that are available below.

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Dr. Elijah Kuska (Twitter, Google Scholar profile) received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington at the Steele Lab. His dissertation is titled In Silico Techniques to Improve Understanding of Gait in Cerebral Palsy and can be accessed here. We talked about the applicability of computation biomechanics and modeling in rehab engineering, discussed synergies and the never-ending debate around them, the importance of improving accessibility in higher education, and his goals for the teaching professor position at the Colorado School of Mines.

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