Helen Huang gives people a leg up

More than 1.7 million Americans are missing a limb, according to the Amputee Coalition. Biomedical engineering Professor Helen Huang views it as 1.7 million people she can help.

Huang, 34, and her students pioneer orthotic and prosthetic technologies that permit amputees to live unimpeded lives.

“The most fascinating part of rehabilitation research is you directly see how people are going to benefit,” Huang says.

The prosthetic legs under design by Huang and her team include intelligence. The artificial brain uses nerve signals to anticipate the next step – or even a stumble – and then activate a built-in motor assist.

The motor also provides extra power for the person running to catch a bus or climbing a staircase. The leg is also attractive. Huang and her students designed the device with all the sensors inside to avoid an unsightly tangle of wires.

Huang is already fielding interest from medical device makers, but the research is not about dollars and cents.

Huang arrived in the United States from China to pursue rehabilitation research at Arizona State University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago – a top U.S. rehabilitation hospital.

The field offered her the opportunity to work with people with disabilities, who, she says, constitute one of the most disadvantaged groups in society.

At the University of Rhode Island, people with disabilities arrive at her lab to test the latest version of a prosthetic leg.

When there’s a problem her team cannot tackle, they do not need to turn far for advice.

The University offers a physical therapy program and a local company fits prosthetic devices to patients. Meanwhile, surrounding hospitals offer testing grounds and feedback.

“The best thing about Rhode Island is nothing is really far away,” Huang says.

The closest people to her, of course, are her students. They say Huang has a passion for her teaching, her patients and her students.

“It’s very easy to work with Dr. Huang,” graduate engineering student Fan Zhang says. “She’s more like a friend, not a professor.”

Friend or not, Huang expects quality work for her students, whom she also views as teachers in their own right.

“I am extremely excited when a student can surprise me,” she says. “Every time I go to a new class I see if I can figure out something special about each student.”