Organisation: University of Twente
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Technological solutions to improve pathological gait in children with CP
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the predominant cause of physical disability in childhood. As the result of a non-progressive injury to the central nervous system, individuals with CP experience pathological gait patterns that progress over-time with child’s grow, increasing energy cost of walking and causing pain and joint degeneration.
In this presentation I will show different technological solutions used to improve pathological gait of children with CP, focusing on robot-based rehabilitation but also on the expansion of novel technologies to daily-life environments.
Biography
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering at University of Twente. My fields of interest are: Rehabilitation robotics, Cerebral Palsy, Wearable exoskeletons, Human-machine interaction and Gait.
I doctorated in 2018 at the University Carlos III of Madrid (Spain), where I received the Ph.D. degree with honors (cum laude), awarded by the Economy and Competitiveness Ministry of Spain. My thesis was focused on developing and testing a robotic platform (CPWalker: smart-walker and exoskeleton) for gait rehabilitation and training in children with Cerebral Palsy and similar motor disorders.
In 2020 I received a VENI grant of the Dutch Research Council NWO to carry out inGAIT project: a light-weight and compact device to improve gait performance of children with Cerebral Palsy in daily life situations.
