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Presenter: Harriet Nembhard, PhD

Robotics and Sensors to Advance Healthcare Delivery: An Operations Approach

Harriet Nembhard, PhD, Professor and School Head of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, led a fascinating discussion on “Robotics and Sensors to Advance Healthcare Delivery: An Operations Approach” at the 2018-19 Distinguished Seminar Series. 

She began her presentation by alluding to the 72 names engraved on the lowest level of the Eiffel Tower giving credit to the 72 engineers who helped to build this iconic structure. She made the point that knowing your “academic family,” those who made discoveries before you, is of great importance.

Nembhard’s work applies operations engineering to Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects 1 in every 50 seniors. She and her team are developing a way to screen for Parkinson’s using machine learning. Nembhard explains that in the same way the trained eye of a doctor might recognize early signs of Parkinson’s, a robot can also be engineered to predict the onset of this disorder using sensors to track slight variations in body movement or gate. Nembhard has made it her goal to use her engineering credentials to positively impact a million people.

Beyond the technical aspects of her work, Nembhard also seeks to tackle pain points unique to Parkinson’s patients, such as the overwhelming number of multidisciplinary caretakers someone with Parkinson’s must see at any given time. She warns, “Don’t solve any problem about the user without the user,” encouraging students to “play in traffic and build community.”