Frontiers Conference at the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh researchers play a leading role in a White House conference, co-hosted by Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, on the future of innovation.

Pitt Pushing the Bounds of Innovation

On the chilled October morning of the White House Frontiers conference, innovators from across the country gathered in Pittsburgh to discuss new frontiers in science and technology--from driverless cars to missions to Mars. But to presenter Michael Boninger, the ultimate frontier is much closer to home.

“The next moon shot is the brain,” he said.

Addressing a roomful of artificial intelligence experts on the Carnegie Mellon University campus, Michael Boninger--professor and UPMC Endowed Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and director of the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute—presented on the promise of assistive technology, devices that improve function and quality of life for patients living with disabilities.

Overhead, a video showed a 30-year-old man with a spinal cord injury who hadn’t moved in years. This patient volunteer had undergone a surgical procedure to connect his body to a Pitt-developed technology known as the Brain Computer Interface (BCI). Conference attendees watched as the man on the screen slowly and carefully picked up a small block and placed it on a shelf, using only his mind--and the robotic arm under its control. And then, in a more recent piece of footage, a patient volunteer performed the same task at a more natural speed.

“This becomes something people can embody very quickly,” said Boninger as yet another patient’s interaction with the technology showed overhead—​a young couple holding hands for the first time in years. “This person could reach out and touch a person’s hand. But he couldn’t feel it.” That, Boninger said, was the Pitt team’s next frontier.

Recently, Pitt, CMU, and University of Chicago researchers collaborated to implant BCI electrodes not only in the motor cortex, but also into the sensory cortex. As detailed in a Science Translational Medicine study published just hours after Boninger’s presentation, 28-year-old Nathan Copeland, who has tetraplegia, became the first human ever to experience the sensation of touch using a brain-controlled prosthetic limb.

In the video, the blindfolded Copeland raised the robotic arm as Robert Gaunt, lead author of the study and assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, touched each of the prosthetic fingers—and Copeland identified them, one by one.

And that same afternoon, in the University of Pittsburgh’s Alumni Hall, President Barack Obama saw this marvel for himself when he met Copeland on the conference exhibit hall floor. The President would later recall their meeting in his opening remarks for the Presidential Panel on Brain Science and Medical Information:

“We shook hands. He had a strong grip, but we toned it done. Then we gave each other a fist bump.”

“That’s what science does. That’s what American innovation can do. That’s what this is about—pushing the bounds of innovation.”

—By Elaine Vitone

For more information:

http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2016/Pages/bci_scitransl-lms.aspx