ADVANCE Fellows Award

这个ADVANCE研究员奖是为了支持PI在工程领域的学术生涯。PI计划在生物医学工程方面发展一个强大的、协调的研究和教育项目。计划中的研究包括两方面的调查：(i)继续努力确定在神经、肌肉和产生的力处测量到的肌肉控制信号之间的相关性；（ii）发展一个新的研究领域，步态分析。电生理学研究的中心假设是，可以设计一种自动化的方法来产生关于中枢神经系统意图的准确信息，从而可以推导出相关的激活指数。双足步态（用两条腿走路）是最难掌握的任务之一，正常的步态有很好的记录。计算机步态分析提供了关于关节运动肌肉激活的非常准确的信息，PI计划使用这个工具来研究糖尿病患者的步态。这项研究的广泛影响对卫生保健服务具有重要意义，与生物学和工程学研究人员建立了合作关系。计划中的教育活动包括进一步发展两门研究生课程，一门教授用于研究的数学技能，另一门教授步态分析。预计这些主题将对女性和西班牙裔学生非常有吸引力，并且PI坚定地致力于推进这一工程领域的多样性。ADVANCE计划的总体任务是通过增加女性在学术科学和工程职业中的代表性和进步来增加女性在科学和工程劳动力中的参与度。预计ADVANCE奖不仅将推动PI在学术科学领域的职业生涯，而且还将使她成为追求学术科学，工程或相关领域职业的女学生的榜样和导师。鉴于研究的性质，该奖项将由BES和ECS两个主管部门管理。

This ADVANCE Fellows award is to support the academic career of the PI in engineering. The PI plans to develop a strong, coordinated program of research and education in biomedical engineering. The planned research consists of two lines of investigation: (i) continuation of her efforts to determine a correlation between the muscle control signal measured at the nerve, at the muscle and the force generated; (ii) development of a new area of research, gait analysis. The central hypothesis for the electrophysiology research is that an automated methodology can be designed to produce accurate information on central nervous system intent, and hence, a correlative index of activation can be derived. Bipedal gait (walking on two legs) is one of the most complex tasks to master, and normal gait is well documented. Computerized gait analysis provides very accurate information about joint motion muscle activation, and the PI plans to use this tool to study gait in diabetics. The broader impacts of this research are significant for health care delivery, with collaborations established with researchers in biology as well as engineering. The planned education activities include the further development of two graduate courses, one teaching mathematical skills for research and the other on gait analysis. It is expected that the these topics will be very attractive to women and Hispanic students, and the PI has a strong commitment to advancing diversity in this engineering field. The overall mission of the ADVANCE Program is to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. It is anticipated that the ADVANCE award will not only advance the PI's career in academic science, but also allow her to serve as a role model and mentor to women students who are pursuing careers in academic science, engineering, or related fields. The award will be managed by two directorates, BES and ECS, given the nature of the research.