In a recentstory , Quartz reports on the unusual work of Sam Huynh . When she was an engineering science student at the Rochester Institute of Technology ( RIT ) , Huynh stand out from the gang . She was the child of refugees , pansy , and a woman in a fielddominated by man . Her relentless work ethic also appeal attention . She secured an internship at SpaceX in her early twenty and then go on to work for Tesla as a design engineer . Despite being on a conventional itinerary to achiever , Huynh left her job at Tesla in 2012 to pursue something closer to her heart .
Specifically , she began plan ahigh - tech exoskeletonfor paralyzed people . She felt inhale to shift her nidus when her former RIT class fellow and close champion Taylor Hattori was injured in a dirt wheel stroke . He was paralyze from the chest down , but Huynh was determined to serve him use his limb again . After returning to school to earn her Master ’s academic degree in fabric engineering , she sire to work designing a automatonlike body suit as part of her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California .
The exoskeleton is meant to tolerate those with paralysis to move severally . Pneumatic “ muscles ” powered by air pressure level moderate the suit in an organic way that resemble how the consistency propel . Electrical signals from the wearer ’s own muscle gun trigger actions ; flex the pectorals , for example , activate motion in the forearm portion of the physical structure suit . The fancy gearing is more than a way for user to get around . Huynh also intend for it to be a variant of physical therapy that helps patients find the mobility they lost .
Her plan is built around the wide held theory of neuroplasticity , which states that the Einstein is capable of rewiring itself based on thoughts and movement . That mean if part of the brain is hurt in an stroke , like the part responsible for ensure weapon movements , it ’s potential for the brain to form unexampled circuits that perform some of those lost functions .
get to that point need diligence , and exoskeletons bring home the bacon patients a direction to practice on their own without solely bank on a physical healer for assistance . The exoskeleton Huynh is design at USC is still a work - in - progress , but her tenacious - terminal figure goal is to build a twist that get wearers to the stop where they no longer need to employ it . “ I be intimate how much Taylor would detest to be reliant on something that was n’t himself , ” Huynh severalize Quartz . “ I do n’t desire people to have to be stuck in my setup : I want them to use it so they can learn how to recycle their own bodies . ”
Huynh is scarce the first individual to call back of building a suit that lets paralytic people walk again . A concept for a “ pneumatic bodyframe ” hold in by electric signal in the brain was first proposed byH. Wangenstein in 1883 . Exoskeletons controlled by the wearer have since become a reality , but they can usually cost anywhere from $ 60,000 to $ 120,000 . Hunyh made sure her product would be accessible to as many people as possible . In total , the materials used to construct her suit be a few hundred one dollar bill . Her current bent - up only check the upper limbs , but she plans to eventually project a suit for the whole body .
[ h / tQuartz ]
