STI research team wins Misha Mahowald Award 2021
© 2021 EPFL
The 2021 Misha Mahowald Prize has been awarded to two teams of researchers, one of them is from the School of Engineering. They have used neuromorphic principles to build devices that help disabled humans improve sensory and motor interaction with the world.
The Bionic Arm Team, composed of researchers from EPFL,developed neural interfaces that control an arm prosthesis for amputees. The sensory interface restores sensory feedback to the brain, and so enables it to provide appropriate motor commands to the prosthesis via a motor interface. Amputees learned to control their bionic arm and developed a sense of touch as if it were their own arm.
The project is described in: "Biomimetic intraneural sensory feedback enhances sensation naturalness, tactile sensitivity, and manual dexterity in a bidirectional prosthesis." Neuron (2018) 100.1: 37-45.
The Bionic Arm Team members are: Giacomo Valle(EPFL, Lausanne), Alberto Mazzoni (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Francesco Iberite (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Edoardo D’Anna (EPFL, Lausanne), Ivo Strauss (EPFL, Lausanne), Giuseppe Granata (Catholic University of The Sacred Heart), Marco Controzzi (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Francesco Clemente (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Giulio Rognini (EPFL, Lausanne), Christian Cipriani (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Thomas Stieglitz (University of Freiburg, Freiburg), Francesco Maria Petrini (EPFL, Lausanne), Paolo Maria Rossini (Catholic University of The Sacred Heart, Rome), and Silvestro Micera (EPFL, Lausanne).
The Misha Mahowald Award for Neuromorphic Engineering recognises outstanding research in neuromorphic engineering, worldwide. The award is named after the late Misha Mahowald, one of the most influential pioneers in the field of neuromorphic engineering.