In this lecture I will present a Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy for reaching and grasping, which does not belong to a typical “garden variety” neuroprostheses that one can commonly find discussed in the literature.  In the literature, the neuroprostheses for grasping are used to replace and substitute function, and patients are expected to depend on these devices their entire lives to reach and grasp objects.  This lecture will showcase a neuroprosthetic application, better known as Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy, which is aimed at restoring voluntary arm and hand function after severe stroke and spinal cord injury, instead of making the users depend on technology to perform reaching and grasping.  In the lecture the results of two Phase II randomized control trial will be presented, which were pivotal for this technology to become a commercially viable product.

The event is free, but please register on the website. The link to attend the meeting will be provided to registered attendees closer to the date of the event: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/246791

Biography: Milos R. Popovic is the Director of The KITE Research Institute at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network, and a Professor (Tenured) in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Popovic is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.  He is the co-founder and director of (i) MyndTec; (ii) the Centre For Advancing Neurotechnological Innovation to Application (CRANIA) at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto; (iii) the CRANIA Neuromodulation Institute at the University of Toronto; and (iv) the Canadian Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Association.  Dr. Popovic is also the founder of the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory at KITE.  Dr. Popovic held the Toronto Rehab Chair in Spinal Cord Injury Research appointment from 2007 until 2017.

Dr. Popovic received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada in 1996, and the Dipl. Electrical Engineer degree from the University of Belgrade, Serbia in 1990.  His fields of expertise are functional electrical stimulation, neuroprostheses, neurorehabilitation, neuromodulation, brain machine interfaces, physiological control systems, assistive technology, modelling and control of linear and non-linear dynamic systems, robotics, and signal processing.

In 1997, together with Dr. Keller, he received the Swiss National Science Foundation Technology Transfer Award – 1st place.  In 2008, Dr. Popovic was awarded the Engineering Medal for Research and Development from the Professional Engineers of Ontario, and Ontario Society of Professional Engineers.  In 2012, company MyndTec Inc., which Dr. Popovic co-founded in 2008, won the 1st Prize and the Best Intellectual Property Award at the annual TiEQuest Business Venture Competition.  In 2013, he received the Morris (Mickey) Milner Award for outstanding contributions in the area of Assistive Technologies from the Health Technology Exchange.  Also, in 2013, together with Drs. Prodic, Lehn, and Huerta-Olivares, and Mr. Tarulli, Dr. Popovic received the University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award.  In 2015, Dr. Popovic received the 2014 University Health Network’s Inventor of the Year Award.  In 2017, he won the Accessibility Innovation Showcase and Tech Pitch Competition Award at the Ontario Centers of Excellence Discovery 2017 Conference.  In 2018, Dr. Popovic received a Jonas Salk Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifetime contributions from the March of Dimes Canada.  In 2019, he was awarded the Engineering Medal for Entrepreneurship from the Professional Engineers of Ontario, and Ontario Society of Professional Engineers.