The Institute - March 2022 - 64

Psyonic's Ability Hand
offers 32 different grips.
It weighs around the same as
an average adult hand.
STARTUP
Haptic Hand
Gives Amputees
Sense of Touch
Psyonic's prosthesis vibrates to provide feedback
BY JOANNA GOODRICH
ON A VISIT to Pakistan with his parents,
7-year-old Aadeel Akhtar met a girl his
age who was missing her right leg. That
was the first time he had met a person
with a limb difference. The girl's family
could not afford the cost of getting her a
prosthetic leg, so she used a tree branch
as a crutch to help her walk. From
that encounter, Akhtar decided that
one day he would develop affordable
artificial limbs.
Twenty-one years later, in 2015, the
IEEE member founded Psyonic, which
designs and builds advanced, affordable
64
THE INSTITUTE
MARCH 2022
artificial limbs. Akhtar is the CEO. The
startup, headquartered in Champaign,
Ill., released its first product-the
Ability Hand-in September 2021. It is
the fastest bionic hand on the market
and the only one with touch feedback.
The prosthesis uses pressure
sensors to mimic the sensation of touch
through vibrations. It functions almost
like a regular hand. All five fingers on
the lightweight prosthesis flex and
extend. It offers 32 different grips.
" The most important thing for us
is to give people a functioning, robust
prosthesis that allows them to do
things they never thought they would
be able to do again, " Akhtar says.
Making prosthetic limbs accessible
Akhtar originally wanted to work
with people with amputations as a
physician. He earned a bachelor's
degree in biology in 2007 from
Loyola University in Chicago. But
while pursuing his degree, he took a
computer science course and fell in
love with the subject.
" I loved everything about
engineering, programming, and building
things, " he says. " I wanted to figure out
a way to combine my interests in both
engineering and medicine. "
He went on to earn a master's
degree in computer science in 2008,
also from Loyola. Two years later
he was accepted into the Medical
Scholars Program at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The program allows students to earn
both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in tandem.
Akhtar earned an additional master's
degree in electrical and computer
engineering and a doctorate in
neuroscience in 2016.
PSYONIC

https://www.luc.edu/ https://www.luc.edu/ http://www.aadeelakhtar.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Posq-2Toqhk https://www.med.illinois.edu/msp/ https://www.med.illinois.edu/msp/ http://www.illinois.edu http://www.illinois.edu https://www.psyonic.io/who-we-are https://www.psyonic.io/who-we-are

The Institute - March 2022

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