Low-cost prosthetic socket design in Kenya It is reported that a majority of amputees experience some form of discomfort when wearing their prosthesis. This is largely in part because, in both developing and developed regions, the current standard for fabricating a prosthetic socket is manual plaster casting. This is a largely artisanal process that requires significant man-hours, is inconvenient for the patient, and is not reproducible. To this end, the Biomechatronics Group has a significant research program to address these challenges. Our projects in this area are centered on using anatomical imaging and/or robotic measurement tools to quantify tissue properties…

This piece was originally published as part of the D-Lab Blog, August 2015 D-Lab: Prosthetics for the Developing World is back for Spring 2015! In the Spring 2014 term, D-Lab: Prosthetics (EC.722) had projects that ranged from improving prosthetic fit, to a pylon prototype aimed at achieving better shock absorption in lower limb prostheses. One of the projects, which focused on using 2D images to form 3D digital models, even caught the attention of Autodesk! Using Autodesk software, such as 123D Catch and Fusion 360, students demonstrated a simple and low-cost way to create 3D digital models of a limb in…

This piece was originally published on MIT Hacking Medicine Blog, December 2014 Thanks to generous support from MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), I was able to take part in the second annual CAMTech Hackathon in Mbarara, Uganda. I have participated in hackathons before as a team member of MIT Hacking Medicine, but this hackathon in particular struck a chord with me. Not only was the event inspirational in and of itself, but it provided a concrete reminder of why I became interested in global health in the first place. Three years ago, I spent a summer working at Mbarara University…