Thomas (Tom) E. Augenstein Receives the Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award!

Post date: Apr 10, 2019 3:37:17 PM

Tom has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Award (2019). NSF Fellows are selected based on their potential to become globally engaged knowledge experts and leaders who can contribute significantly to research, education, and innovations in science and engineering. Tom was one among the 2000 applicants who were selected competitively from a pool of more than 15000 applicants by a panel of experts for his proposed research work on a low cost robotics and muscle synergy control for stroke rehabilitation. Specifically, the proposed work involves (1) developing and validating a low-cost, semi-passive rehabilitation robot (SepaRRo), (2) implementing and evaluating an EMG-based controller for retraining muscle synergies in stroke survivors, and (3) evaluating the cumulative effects of EMG-based robotic control treatment for correcting post-stroke muscle synergies. Tom is currently pursuing a Master's degree (with Thesis) in Mechanical Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Chandramouli Krishnan at Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. He has been admitted to the UM Robotics PhD program and will be starting his PhD with Dr. Krishnan in Fall 2019. He is the second student in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation to earn this distinction. The mission of the University of Michigan Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (http://pmr.med.umich.edu/) is to maximize the health, function and quality of life of individuals with acute and chronic illness and disability in the local and global community throughout their life span through innovative research, education, advocacy and interdisciplinary clinical practice. Tom's work fits well with this mission and we wish him more success in his endeavors!