Biomedical engineering student gains national attention for findings

Samantha Eigenbrot of Douglassville, PA, a senior in the newly accredited biomedical engineering program at Widener University, attended the national conference for the Amputee Collation in North Carolina to collect data for their summer research with Dr. Jonathon Akins, assistant professor.

A part of her research at the conference was to help calculate the risk of falling of prosthesis users with prosthetics, as well as balance confidence. She and a follow student used sensors to analyze movement and collected data from several tests including sit to stand and walking in a figure eight.

According to Akins, the outcome measures can be used to see how one is improving with rehab. “The findings will help address how clinicians can build confidence using sensors to measure transfer ability and turn ability of prosthesis users during these tests.” Sensors are not currently used to measure outcomes, but the students’ findings show that they can be more accurate.

Eigenbrot presented her findings at the Summer Research Symposium at Widener in September, and also submitted an abstract based on the research to the American Academy of Orthotics and Prosthetics.