Shriya Srinivasan, an Indian-American assistant professor at the John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has secured funding from Harvard’s Grid Accelerator for her project on wearable spasticity management and mitigation.
Her research aims to tackle the challenges faced by over 12 million individuals globally, characterized by involuntary muscle stiffness and contractions, often leading to movement difficulties, dependency, and chronic pain.
Srinivasan’s team has been developing a wearable stimulation system, dubbed the Wearable Adaptive Vibrotactile Bracelet (WAVelet). Unlike current invasive and bulky approaches with limited efficacy, the WAVelet is cost-effective and a low-risk alternative.
With a background in biomedical engineering, Srinivasan earned her BS in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a doctoral degree in medical engineering and medical physics from the Harvard-MIT health sciences and technology program.
Her research included work on neural interfaces and surgical paradigms for amputation. It helped in enhancing neural control and sensory feedback for amputees, as well as designing ingestible medical devices.
Moreover, she founded and became director of the Biohybrid Organs and Neuroprosthetics (BIONIC) Lab.
Paul Hayre, executive director of Harvard Grid, said, “From a cast of several exciting possibilities, these six projects have a line-of-sight to launch, in some form, in about a year and impressed the selection committee with their potential to meaningfully elevate the human condition on a global scale. Our role now shifts from selection to support to see that they achieve their objectives.”
The Harvard Grid Accelerator, a collaboration between Harvard’s Office of Technology Development and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, aims to translate high-potential science and engineering projects into startups or commercialization opportunities. The funding and support help researchers take their technology from the lab to the market.
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