Wins National Career Award
James P. Schmiedeler, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the nation’s highest honor for independent professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.
The NSF, which nominated Schmiedeler for the honor, in 2006 awarded him approximately $500,000 in funding over five years to support his research across disciplines into the area of neuroscience as he studies how the brain plans movement and how a stroke damages a person’s motor skills.
Schmiedeler is developing a mathematical model of motor coordination. Based on that model, he will collaborate with the university’s division of physical therapy and department of physical medicine and rehabilitation to develop a robot to aid patients’ physical rehabilitation. Over time, the device would help physical therapists gauge a patient’s improvement.
Schmiedeler is working with a prototype robotic system that is assessing the movement of stroke patients and helping him fine-tune his mathematical model. Eventually, the robot will be able to amplify the force applied by stroke patients and help direct the movement of those with coordination difficulties.
“As in playing a piece of music on the piano, there are different elements involved,” says Schmiedeler. “There’s the geometry of the fingering, the speed at which that geometry is executed, and the muscle forces required to achieve that speed. You may learn a new piece slowly, but when you eventually master it at the proper speed, you retain the ability to go back and play it slowly because the fingering geometry remains the same. If we can assess whether the damage to coordination from a stroke is at the geometry, speed, or force level, we can do a better job in targeting the rehab.”
Schmiedeler also mentors eighth-grade girls in a summer camp for future engineers at Ohio State, developing modules where students learn about a research topic and participate in an activity. He is currently developing a module about his work with robotic-assisted rehabilitation.
