The development and testing of novel myoelectric control algorithms for active prostheses using implantable (invasive) sensors.

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship position to work on an exciting project in neurorehabilitation engineering at Imperial College London. The successful candidate will join the group of Prof. Dario Farina as a part of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioengineering/). The work conducted will be done in close collaboration with the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Restoration of Extremity Function at the Medical University of Vienna (Prof. Oskar Aszmann).

The project’s main objective is the development and testing of novel myoelectric control algorithms for active prostheses using implantable (invasive) sensors. The loss of a limb due to trauma or disease is a major impairment and restoration of the missing function is a very relevant engineering challenge. Although the control of bionic limbs with biological signals is a clinical reality since decades, the current performance of these systems is very limited with respect to their biological counterparts. Therefore, current bionic reconstruction only allows the voluntary control over 1-2 degrees of freedom, which is functionally not sufficient for dexterous manipulation. This has been a major cause for abandonment of active prostheses and is a particularly serious limitation for high level amputations where the number of degrees of freedom to restore is high. This PhD project will closely work with the clinical partner in developing novel control algorithms based on implantable technologies (surgical procedures will be in place at the clinical partner) which will be used for advanced dexterous control of prosthetic devices. In addition to development, the project will include clinical testing and assessment of the developed techniques as well as support in devising the new sensing hardware.

Applicants should have a background in neuroscience, engineering, physics or computing, with experience in signal processing, mainly machine learning, as well as algorithm implementation.

For an informal discussion please contact Prof. Dario Farina (email: [Email Address Removed]; telephone: +44 (0)20 759 41387).