News

Discover how our work at the Human Fusions Institute is making headlines.

2024

• Meet HFI's new Executive Director, Mark Mykleby. Read Full Story HERE
   
• Alexis E. Block gives two presentations at IEEE/ACM HRI Conference. Read Full Story HERE
   
• Hossein Lavasani receives NSF CAREER Award. Read Full Story HERE
   
• Alexis E. Block chairs Gordon Research Seminar in Robotics. Read Full Story HERE
   
• HFI Faculty Member Pan Li named IEEE Fellow. Read Full Story HERE
   
• Afference, a spin-off from the Human Fusions Institute, and its groundbreaking product, The Phantom, were featured in this article highlighting gadgets from CES 2024. Check out the incredible innovations HERE
   
• Meet HFI's New Software Engineer, Syed Mohammad Asjad. Read Full Story HERE

2023

• Summer Intern, Marquis Globokar, wins Intersections Award. Read Full Story HERE
   
• Karina Dsouza defends M.S. Thesis. Read Full Story HERE
   
• Researchers Present at Pentagon Demo Day. Read Full Story HERE
   
• iSens System Showcased to President Biden:

  Researchers from Case Western Reserve University’s Human Fusions Institute (HFI) recently displayed their work at "American Possibilities: A White House Demo Day" in Washington, D.C. The event was hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Read Full Story HERE

• Afference Inc. a spinoff company founded on technology created by HFI was awarded the Best of Innovation XR Technologies & Accessories award at the CES 2024 for The Phantom. Read Full Story HERE

• Keith Vonderhuevel shares his experience of participating in new prosthetic studies using technologies from the HFI Lab.  Read full story HERE

• HFI Members Emily Graczyk and Dustin Tyler featured in The Daily Article: Biomedical engineers at Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago to restore sense of feeling for breast cancer patients. Read full story HERE

• Human Fusions Institute faculty member Emily Graczyk and her lab recently celebrated the success of their first neural interface implantation surgery for their study aiming to restore sensation to people with limb loss. Read full story HERE
   
• HFI employee Alexis E. Block begins new project "Affect Sensing Modular Wearable to Promote Social-Physical Interactions” Read full story HERE
   
• Human Fusions Institute student Jiaji Su recently had the opportunity to present his hardware demonstration of a  "3+1 Degree-of-Freedom Integrated Kinesthetic and Cutaneous Fingertip Soft Haptic Device for Enhanced Telerobotic Manipulation," at the inaugural demonstration session of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Detroit. Read full story HERE
   
• HFI collaborator Nick Zingale speaks at Human-Machine Systems Summit. Read full story HERE
   
• HFI student Tom Zhou presents at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Detroit. Full story HERE
   
• HFI student Luis Mesias Flores was selected by the Cleveland FES Center to give one of their First Tuesday seminars.
  
  Read about Luis’s presentation, Development of a VR Assessment and Training Platform for Convergence Insufficiency HERE
   
• 60 Minutes re-airied the episode that featured the groundbreaking work led by CWRU researchers Dustin Tyler and Bolu Ajiboye, biomedical engineering pioneers who brought a new sense of touch and hope to amputees and people with spinal cord injuries. Check out the segment online: https://lnkd.in/gU3i8kj4
   
• In recognition of the life-changing impact of his science and the honor he brings to Case, Dustin Tyler, PhD ’99, is to receive the Gold Medal at Homecoming 2023, the highest honor bestowed annually by the Case Alumni Association
  
  Case Alumni Association article: Engineering New Wonders
   
• Human Fusion's Institute and construction of the new lab featured in NeoTrans Blog
  
  Human Fusions Institute finds a home
   
• Professor Dustin Tyler, PhD ’99, who has brought new hope to people with artificial limbs while bringing acclaim to the Case School of Engineering, to be recognized by CWRU Alumni Association during Homecoming this October 2023.
  
  Read the Alumni Association Online Article
   
• On Sunday, March 26, the popular CBS program 60 Minutes brought national attention to groundbreaking work led by CWRU researchers Dustin Tyler and Bolu Ajiboye, biomedical engineering pioneers bringing a new sense of touch and hope to amputees and people with spinal cord injuries. The featured research by Tyler, director of the Human Fusions Institute, and Ajiboye is part of a cross-institutional partnership with Cleveland VA Medical Center, Cleveland FES Center, MetroHealth and University Hospitals
  
  Link for full episode: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/advancements-in-prosthetics-limb-technology-allow-feeling-control-60-minutes-transcript-2023-03-26/
  
  Link for additional content on 60 Minutes Overtime:https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prosthetics-breakthroughs-2006-to-now-60-minutes-2023-03-26
  
  Link for article by The Daily: Feel again: Advancements in prosthetics limb technology allow feeling, control
   
• HFI Members Dustin Tyler and Pedram Mohseni are selected as part of the 2022 inductees for the National Academy of Innovators. Dr. Tyler is inducted as a Fellow and Dr. Mohseni as a Senior Member. The Induction Ceremonies will be held June 25-27, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
  
  NAI Welcomes 95 New Emerging Innovators
  NAI Inducts 2022 Fellows Class
  National Academy of Inventors Home Page

2022

• Dr. Tyler and recipient of technology for restoring touch discuss the experience and value of restoring the lost sense of touch in Episode 20: Restoring a lost sense of touch (nationalgeographic.com) hosted by Peter Gwin. 
• See National Geographic article "The audacious science pushing the boundaries of human touch (nationalgeographic.com)" by Cynthia Gorney featuring the Human Fusions Institute and many aspects of its work in restoring the sense of touch.
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    Lynn Johnson - National Geographic
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• Drs. Segil, Graczyk, Zingale, and Block organize and host the 2022 IEEE-HAPTICS conference Cross-Cutting Challenges symposium, "The Importance of Touch for Distributed Embodiment". Watch the event here.
• Dr. Tyler and a limb loss subject meet with President Biden and Dr. Francis Collins - former Director of NIH, Dr. Alonda Nelson - Director of Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Stephanie Tompkins - Director of DARPA, and Dr. Lisa Cooper - Professor at Johns Hopkins University to discuss and provide input to the newly enacted ARPA-H legislation. WH Video, YouTube Video, Cleveland dot Com, theHill, The Case Daily, Case School of Engineering Report

2021

• The Human Fusion team competed in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE in Miami, Florida. A superstar team led by Dustin Tyler and consisting of collaborators and students from Case Western Reserve University (Led by Emily Graczyk and Michael Fu); Univ of California, Los Angeles (led by Veronica Santos); Cleveland State University (led by Nicholas Zingale); and University of Wyoming (led by Justin Piccorelli) demonstrated their Sensa Avatar system. Please look at our photo blog of the event.

2020

• “Seeking human connections across time and space: Case Western Reserve research team from Human Fusions Institute aims for $10 million Avatar XPrize competition; winner will best ‘transport a human’s sense, actions and presence’ to another place” (January 24, 2020)
• World premier of “I Am Human” at Tribeca Film Festival (January 30, 2020)
• “Restoring Touch for Amputees Could Spur Greater Human-Machine Fusions” (Cleveland FES Center, April 7, 2020)
• “Biology and Human-machine Relationships in the Present” presentation by Dustin Tyler for the Origins Science Scholars Program at Case Western Reserve University (April 14, 2020; to air on PBS Ideastream)
• “Human-machine relationships: Engineering the Future” presentation by Dustin Tyler for the Origins Science Scholars Program at Case Western Reserve University (April 21, 2020; to air on PBS Ideastream)

2019 

• Society for Neuroscience Social Issues Round Table (October 20, 2019)
• Link to announcement of funding for pilot development of the infrastructure of the OTHERNet to support human-technology symbiosis?
• *Link to pilot demonstration of NeuroReality™? 
• *Link to development of systems to remove the war fighter from danger in the theater? 
• XPRIZE story 
• *Link to DARPA Seed Sprint announcement re: including human-in-the-loop control of drone swarms?
• *Link to announcement re: successful completion of Phase I of development of Intelligent Neural Interfaces and awarding of Phase II grant to continue the work?
• Completed pre-clinical development, fabrication process development, and verification of a completely implanted, Bluetooth™-connected HFi system;
• Began formation and development of a ~$30MM proposal for HFi technology to “Bridge the Gap” in spinal cord injury. 

2018

• “DARPA Risers – Introduction by Dr. Peter Highnam, DARPA Deputy Director” (DARPAtv, Sept. 24, 2018)

2017

• “Prosthetic Hand Restores Sense of Touch” (Jan. 27, 2016)
• “For Amputees, Reactivating the Sense of Touch” (Great Big Story, Jan. 16, 2017)

2016

“Enabling amputees to discern light touch to intense pressure” (Oct. 26, 2016)

What the Science of Touch Says About Us | The New Yorker (May 9th, 2016)

2015

“Can modern prosthetics actually help reclaim the sense of touch?” (PBS NewsHour, Feb. 13, 2015)

2014

“Restoring the Sense of Touch” (Oct. 8, 2014)

Annual Reports 

2019 Human Fusions Review