Event Location: 1305 Newell Simon Hall
Bio: Bambi Brewer, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of
Pittsburgh in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology,
where she teaches in the Prosthetics and Orthotics program. She received
her PhD and MS from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in
2006 and 2002, respectively. She received BS degrees in math and physics
from Rhodes College in 2000.

Abstract: Disorders of the brain have devastating, but poorly understood, effects on
how individuals move and perform daily tasks. This talk will describe
applications of robotics to the study of neurological disorders and to
address disabilities caused by these disorders. These applications will
include the quantitative assessment of motor signs of Parkinson’s disease;
in addition, the use of a simple, portable system to analyze range of
motion after stroke will be discussed, as well as the effects of visual
distortion on these measurements. This talk will close with a discussion
of effective, intuitive methods of interaction between individuals with
disabilities and assistive robots.