"Motorized Neck Brace System" project by MECH students wins "Award of Distinction"

Building on last year's award-winning "Dynamic Neck Brace" project in MECH 457 (2007-2008), the ALS Society of British Columbia increased its support for neck brace design projects this past academic year (2008-2009), as well as for other projects at UBC, SFU, UVic and BCIT that promote the well-being of persons with ALS. A total of 12 student projects were submitted this April for consideration of the Design Award, 4 from UBC.

The "Principal Award" ($5,000), went to Samuel Chua of UBC's EECE Dept.
for the "Automated Speech Recognition and Intelligibility Enhancement System for PALS with BiPAP Assisted Breathing" project.

The "Award of Distinction"($2,500) went to the "Motorized ALS Neck Brace" project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between supervisor Dr. Van der Loos and students Eric Wen, Brad Neels, Anmy Ho, Sassan Nawabi Shirazi, Varun Rana Singh, Jay Liu, and Jayson Rupert, from UBC's MECH 451/2 mechatronics capstone design class and in the Industrial Design program of Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

The "Motorized ALS Neck Brace" project is recommended for its group’s achievement in support and mobility of the head, incorporating motorized assistance. The UBC Mechanical Engineering Team collaborated with an Emily Carr student on this impressively designed project, which the PALS Panel members actually trialed on themselves.

Parisa Bastani receives the Outstanding Future Alumnus Award

Mechanical Engineering student Parisa Bastani receives the Outstanding Future Alumnus Award.

This award recognizes a UBC student who has demonstrated ambassador-like qualities on behalf of UBC and who has excelled in one or a number of the following: leadership, academic success, community service, university service, athletic or artistic achievement, faculty recognition or other areas worthy of recognition.

Congratulations Parisa on such a great achievement!

Professor Thomas Oxland has been made an American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Fellow

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce that Professor Thomas Oxland has been made an American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Fellow. The Fellow Grade recognizes significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

Professor Oxland's principal areas of research and development contribution include the biomechanical aspects of the spine, spinal injury, orthopaedic implants and surgical techniques. The scope of the work includes bioengineering research studies and medical product development.

Specifically, he and his colleagues have characterized various aspects of the normal, diseased, and injured human spine and documented novel surgical approaches to treating these potentially devastating conditions. Overall, his 120 journal publications have been cited over 2,200 times (Web of Science). Furthermore, he was the main research and development engineer for novel spinal implants that remain in clinical use today, more than ten years after the initial surgeries.