November 3 at 20:00-21:00 (EST)
= November 3 at 17:00-18:00 (PST)
= November 4 at 10:00-11:00 (KST/JST)
= November 4 at 9:00-10:00 (SST)
= November 4 at 6:30-7:30 (IST)

Presenters:
Hugh Herr
Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
Head, Biomechatronics

Canan Dagdeviren
Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
LG Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
Head, Conformable Decoders

Shuguang Zhang
Principal Research Scientist

Description:
Half the world’s population currently experiences some form of physical or neurological disability. At some point in each of our lives, it is all too likely that a family member or friend will be struck by a limiting or incapacitating condition, from dementia, to the loss of a limb, to a debilitating disease such as Parkinson’s or ALS. Today we acknowledge serious physical and mental impairments as inherent to the human condition. But must these conditions be accepted as “normal”? What if, instead, through the invention and deployment of novel technologies, we could control biological processes within the body in order to repair or even eradicate them?

At the Media Lab, this isn’t the realm of science fiction. Advances in critical scientific and technological areas, including biomechanics, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, and synthetic biology, are providing key insights into conditions that we previously viewed as “unfixable.”  We draw on the existing strengths of research in synthetic neurobiology, biomechatronics, and biomaterials, combined with enhanced capabilities for design development and prototyping. These connections open exciting new possibilities for designing and building extreme interfaces with humans, and for eliminating disability in an integrated, systematic fashion.