Date: Nov. 13, 2006
Contacts: William Skane, Executive Director

Maureen O'Leary, Director of Public Information
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail <news@nas.edu>

Conference on Smart Prosthetics Offers New Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Collaboration; $1 Million in Grants to Be Awarded to Researchers

IRVINE, Calif. -- More than 160 people gathered last week at the National Academies' Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the fourth annual National Academies Keck Futures Initiative conference. This year's topic, "Smart Prosthetics: Exploring Assistive Devices for the Body and Mind," drew scientists, engineers, and medical researchers to the conference to discuss new interdisciplinary approaches to developing smart assistive devices.

To encourage further interdisciplinary work in the field of prosthetics, the Academies announced the availability of $1 million in seed grants – up to $75,000 each – to speed new lines of research identified by conference participants.  Recipients of the competitive grants will be announced in April 2007.

"The research that supports the coming generation of advanced prosthetics spans many fields," said Wm. A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering.  "With demand to create ever more powerful and adaptable smart prosthetics on the rise, this is the  perfect time to organize top researchers into multidisciplinary teams who can ask the right questions and set new creative directions."    

As a way to help bridge the communication gaps among researchers from different fields, the organizers held pre-conference "tutorial" sessions in which speakers provided an overview of their fields in language that scientists, engineers, or medical researchers from other disciplines could understand. Topics included use of polymers for tissue regeneration, neuroplasticity and designing new brain prosthetics devices, "smart" orthotics, engineering the biointerface, and medical device regulation.  The tutorials are available online at www.keckfutures.org/prosthetics  webcasts. 

Eleven conference breakout sessions gave the participants eight hours to develop a possible scientific plan to solve a challenge posed to the group.  Among the challenges were building a prosthesis that would grow with a child (such as a heart valve or cerebral shunt); develop a smart prosthetic that could learn better or faster; describe a framework for replacing damaged cortical tissue and fostering circuit integration to restore neurological function; and restore sensory perception of limb movement and contact.  Representatives from public and private funding organizations, government, industry, and the science media also participated in these focus groups.

"The combination of powerful new prosthetic capabilities and the wide-ranging clinical needs they can fill energized our participants” said Hunter Peckham, director of the FES Center at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, professor of biological engineering at Case Western University, and this year's conference chair. "Our task groups were inspired to take risks, reach out in new directions, and map out innovative programs of research to pursue together at this conference and beyond.”

Participants also presented posters describing their latest research, covering topics such as mirror therapy for neurologic and orthopaedic patients; a cognitive/memory neural prosthesis for the hippocampus; creating intelligent mobility systems; neural prosthetic control of bladder function; equilibrium-point prosthetic ankle joint; and increasing the performance of brain-computer interfaces.

2006 Communication Awards

Encouraging better communication among scientists in various fields and between scientists and the public are key components of the Futures Initiative. During the conference, the National Academies presented their 2006 Communication Awards to Charles Mann, author of 1491 for his engaging and thought-provoking rediscovery of the early human history in North America; Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker for her three-part series on the science and politics of global climate change; and The History Channel and Lion Television's documentary "Ape to Man," an accurate and entertaining overview of human evolution.  The awards recognize excellence in communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the public. Each winner received a $20,000 cash prize and spoke to conference attendees about their views on the value of communicating science well.

Launched in 2003 by the National Academies and the W.M. Keck Foundation, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative is a 15-year effort to stimulate interdisciplinary inquiry and to enhance communication among researchers, funding agencies, universities, and the general public. The Futures Initiative builds on three pillars of vital and sustained research: interdisciplinary encounters that counterbalance specialization and isolation; exploration of new questions; and bridging languages, cultures, habits of thought, and institutions through communication. For more information on the Futures Initiative, visit www.keckfutures.org.

The National Academies comprise the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. For more information, visit <http://national-academies.org>.