NIU engineering students use technology to target tremors.

A multidisciplinary group of NIU engineering students have banded together to try and make life easier for people with Parkinson’s disease, said project mentor and professor of mechanical engineering Dr. Abhijit Gupta.

“The project focuses on two conditions known as Parkinson’s and essential tremor; both create involuntary movements in the body,” Gupta said. “There is no cure to date, and the medications available have made limited progress and come with potential side effects.”

The group consists of three NIU students, sophomore electrical engineering major Ryan Riddel, graduate electrical engineering major Rakesh Valusa and graduate mechanical engineering major Sandeep Ganti. The team works toward creating an exoskeleton of sorts to help control and negate the involuntary tremors associated with Parkinson’s.

Currently the team is in the process of researching the motions of these involuntary tremors and hopes to have a full measurement system for the spectrum of tremors up soon.

“We hope to have a research proposal and a working design to present by the summer to various Parkinson’s research foundations, as well as the National Institute of Health,” Riddel said. “Parkinson’s affects one in 100 people, and is a costly condition for people and their families, as the average cost associated with the condition is about $10,000 a month. We hope to be able to make life more comfortable for the people affected by these tremors and make daily tasks, such as eating and writing, more possible.”

Gupta said he brought the students together to start the new project in November. The NIU team hopes to create a motorized brace that could be worn and counteract the motions of the tremors and stabilize control of the arm.

“We want to create a solution without any medical intervention,” Gupta said. “The major problem we face is that the solution has to be both portable and usable. It’s not a matter of size; rather, it is a matter of applying the methods of active vibration control to a human.”

The team plans to keep the project in perspective and set goals along the way to measure their progress.

“We find a purpose of life with this project,” Valusa said. “We can help millions of people by improving their overall quality of life. On top of that, it’s a combination of electrical and mechanical engineering that is really interesting and I get to work alongside some fantastic people.”

While a completed exoskeleton will not be made by the team until after the proposal this summer, the team plans to work alongside the College of Engineering in continued research. Alongside the exoskeleton design, the group plans to create a weighted pen that will make writing easier for people with tremors.

“If we can even help one person to have a better standard of living, then we have a reward,” Gupta said.

Such aspirations are important to these projects, said Promod Vohra, dean of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology.

“It is very important to connect engineering with human life,” said Vohra. “This is an opportunity for students to make an impact on the world through engineering.”