Health Professional - Richard F. ff. Weir, PhD - Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

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Richard F. ff. Weir, PhD

Research Scientist, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center - Lakeside CBOC
Research Associate Professor, PM&R, Feinberg School of Medicine, NU
Research Associate Professor, BME, McCormick School of Engineering, NU
Sr. Research Scientist, SMPP, RIC

Locations

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

Research Interests

Richard F. ff. Weir, PhD is currently researching are in the fields of Biomedical, Rehabilitation, and Mechatronic Engineering, specifically, artificial arm/hand systems, manipulators, robotics and their control. My primary research emphasis is in man-machine interfaces and the design of upper-limb prosthetic components and their associated control. The current focus of this work is the development of externally-powered partial hand prostheses for clinical use and the development of clinically viable multiple degree-of-freedom externally-powered prosthetic hands for persons with amputations proximal to the wrist. In the area of upper-limb control my research is directed towards the long-term goal of achieving meaningful, simultaneous, multi-functional, control of prosthetic arms and/or hands. This work is currently directed at developing physiologically appropriate microprocessor based controllers based on implantable "BION®-like" EMG sensors for multiple degree-of-freedom prosthetic arm control. My secondary research specialty area is the design and development of medical instrumentation. The current focus of which is the development of portable easy-to-use real-time gait analysis systems based on ultrasound ranging techniques. These systems, designed for use in small clinical facilities, record the instantaneous motion of a person's approximate body-center-of-mass for the purpose of measuring and diagnosing pathological lower-limb gait.

Education & Training

Education

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL: Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, 1995
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL: M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering, 1989
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland: BAI(Hons) Microelectronics & Electrical Engineering, 1983
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland: BA Mathematics, 1983

Awards & Recognition

2003 Plenary Speaker, Rehabilitation Engineering Track, 29th Annual Northeast Bioengineering
Conference, New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey, March 22nd - 23rd, 2003.

2002 Awarded US Patent #60/432,676: Weir, R. F. ff., and Grahn, E. G., (2002): A New Externally-
Powered Hand Prosthesis Suitable for the Restoration of Prehension of Persons with Amputations at or more Proximal to the level of the Meta-carpophalangeal Joint. United States Provisional. Patent, Number: 60/432,676, Filed December 12th, 2002.

2002 Invited Speaker, “Prosthetics Hardware”, Myoelectric Controls Conference (MEC2002),
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, August 19th - 23rd, University of New Brunswick, New
Brunswick, Canada.

1999 Recipient of a 3 year Career Development Award (B0928CD) “Rehabilitation Research And Development Of Gait Instrumentation And Upper-Extremity Prostheses.” from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

1998 Awarded US Patent #5,831,937: Weir, R. F. ff., Childress, D. S., and Licameli, J. N., (1998): Portable Ranging System for Analyzing Gait. United States Patent, Number: 5,831,937, Date of Patent: November 3rd, 1998.

Recent or Important Publications

Childress, D. S. and Weir, R. F. ff., (2003): Control of Limb Prostheses. Invited Chapter, Atlas of Limb Prosthetics (3rd Edition), American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), Submitted May 2003.

Al-angari, H. M., Weir, R F. ff., Heckathorne, C. W., Childress, D. S., (2003): A Two Degree-of-Freedom Microprocessor Based Extended Physiological Proprioception (EPP) Controller for Upper Limb Prostheses. Technology and Disability, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 113 - 127.

Weir, R. F. ff. (2003): Design of Artificial Arms and Hands for Prosthetic Applications. Invited Chapter (Chapter 32) in Standard Handbook of Biomedical Engineering & Design. Myer Kutz, Editor, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 32.1 - 32.61.

Weir, R. F. ff., (2002): Robotics and Manipulators. Invited Chapter (Chapter 17) in: Clinician's Guide to Assistive Technology, D. A. Olson and F. DeRuyter (Editors). St. Louis: Mosby, Inc., pp. 281 - 293.

Weir, R. F. ff., and Childress, D. S., (2001): Research Trends for the 21st Century. Invited Chapter, Meier & Aitkens Eds., (Submitted).

Weir, R. F. ff., Heckathorne, C. W., and Childress D. S., (2001): Cineplasty as a Control Input for Externally Powered Prosthetic Components. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development. Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 357 - 363, July/August 2001.

Weir, R. F. ff., Grahn, E. C., and Duff, S. J., (2001): A New Externally-Powered, Myoelectrically Controlled Prosthesis for Persons with Partial Hand Amputations at the Metacarpals. Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics. Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 26 - 31, June 2001.