University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign

Merging Robotics and Neuroscience to Develop 3D-Printed Prosthetics

CSL Professor Tim Bretl investigates two distinct areas of research: robotics and neuroscience. Yet Bretl’s research, enabled by a multidisciplinary team of students, merges the two disparate areas in applications that aim to positively impact society.

One of Bretl’s four active projects involves developing upper-limb prosthetic devices. He and graduate student Aadeel Akhtar are building a prosthetic hand that connects to the user with electrodes that read muscle activity (called an electromyographic [EMG]-based interface) and incorporates sensory feedback.

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Why companies across the U.S. are flocking to this downstate research park

About 150 miles south of Chicago, past open fields and small-town water towers like pushpins on the Illinois map, you'll find a surprising corporate outcropping. Twenty-five big-name businesses—from Dow Chemical to Yahoo—have set up shop in a cluster of buildings at the University of Illinois Research Park in Champaign.

The draw: The university is one of the country's biggest producers of computer science, math and engineering students, a resource corporate America is desperate to tap. Eight companies arrived just last year, the biggest wave since the park opened in 2001.

Read more about how 520+ students are making money working for top companies

Project embeds computer science lessons in math instruction for K-5 students