Top grant benefits BU orthosis research

3 April 2009

A Global Research Award has enabled a BU academic to patent a design which will help the rehabilitation of stroke victims.

A research grant which funded a BU academic’s two-year trip to a leading American research university has resulted in a patent for his innovative design to aid arm movement.

Dr Venky Dubey, based within BU’s School of Design, Engineering & Computing, specialises in the creation of a gravity-balancing orthosis to help older people regain or enhance the use of their upper arms during post-stroke rehabilitation.

He was awarded the Global Research Award of £75,000 by the Royal Academy of Engineering as part of its ‘Engineers in Research and Development’ scheme. The scheme selects only a handful of top academics from UK universities each year.

The secondment to the University of Delaware enabled Dr Dubey to design and build robotic devices with his American colleagues and submit a patent application to protect its commercial viability.

Dr Dubey also organised an international conference, Rehabilitation Robotics, for experts in his field across the world and published journal and conference papers.

His work has been recently peer-reviewed for inclusion in international journals including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Journal for Medical Devices and the Journal of Mechanism and Machine Theory.

Reflecting upon the experience, Dr Dubey, who has just returned to BU, said: “Receiving this award was a real coup for BU and our Smart Technology Research Centre, and is adding an international dimension to our existing infrastructure and expertise.

“People and organisations with diverse interests want to collaborate and invest in our research as the novel technology takes shape. As a result of the experience gained in the USA, we are close to submitting a major research grant application with our international collaborator to further develop the project at BU.”