News and Events

This page contains information on past and upcoming news and events relivant to the Center for Assistive, Rehabilitation and Robotics Technologies.

Recent News

05/29/2022
CARRT personnel contributed to the 24th Annual Family Cafe that was held on May 27-29, 2022 in Orlando. Dr. Redwan Alqasemi and CARRT Associate Director Stephen Sundarrao presented the latest asistive technologies to attendees during the event, and connected directly with persons with disabilities for potential assistive technology projects. See some pictures of the event here:
Family Cafe 2022 Pictures
Since 1998, The Annual Family Café has brought Floridians with all types of disabilities together for information, training, and networking. It includes a wide range of breakout sessions, an Exhibit Hall, and a series of special events including Keynote speakers and The Governors’ Summit on Disabilities. For more information about the Family Cafe, see their website at:
Family Cafe
04/26/2019
USF-CARRT Alumni, Kaitlin Lostroscio, presented her thesis work as a webinar at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Her webinar is now made available to the public at the following link:
NASA Webinar
01/08/2019
Dr. Redwan Alqasemi has been elevated to IEEE Senior Member status, which is the highest and most prestegious status. IEEE is the world's largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
09/04
Dr. Redwan Alqasemi received the Alliance for Citizens with Disabilities Hillsborough County 2018 Award
09/04
Dr. Stephanie Carey received the 2018 Excellence in Innovation Award from the National Academy of Inventors (NAI)
08/16
Drs. Rajiv Dubey, Redwan Alqasemi, Kyle Reed and Sudeep Sarkar were awarded $500K National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to carry on fundamental research for the project entitled: "Achieving Autonomy by Learning from Sensor-Assisted Control in a Wheelchair-Based Human-Robot Collaborative System"
08/05
Prof. Rajiv Dubey appeared on the cable show "In Focus" for an Automation and Workers discussion. The discussion adressed the fear of losing jobs to robots, and how automation may impact the job market and the kinds of job skills needed for the future. The program video can be seen in the following three segments:
Part-1
Part-2
Part-3
08/25
NSF- I/UCRC planning meeting on Sept. 14-15, 2017: USF’s CARRT will be holding a NSF I/UCRC planning meeting on campus on Sept. 14-15, 2017. Any companies interested in learning more about the research projects at USF’s CARRT and how they can become partners contact Dr. Stephanie Carey at scarey3@usf.edu for more information. To see the agenda for the planning meeting and for more information, please see the links below:
Planning Meeting Agenda
CARRT Flyer
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08/01
A couple of patents from CARRT have been highlighted in an article published by 83 Degrees Media, including the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) patent and the GEMS patent (REED LAB). You can read about these articles and the interviews with Dr. Redwan Alqasemi and Dr. Kyle Reed in the link below:
83 Degrees Media news article
07/13
Virtual Reality for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR4VR) is designed to assess and train persons with cognitive disabilities on work-related skills. Watch Dr. Redwan Alqasemi and John Ficca on this Fox 13 News segment that shows how finding jobs for this population can be much easier:
Fox 13 News
06/17
2017 Summer STEM Career Exploration for Individuals with Disabilities. Sign up for this 2-week Work Experience program that starts Monday July 3 and ends Friday July 14 (except July 4th). For more information about the summer program, please visit the link:
STEM Summer Program Flyer
To register for this summer camp, please download the registration form at:
STEM Summer Program Registration
06/17
Save the Date, Sept. 14-15, 2017: USF’s CARRT will be holding a NSF I/UCRC planning meeting on campus on Sept. 14-15, 2017. Any companies interested in learning more about the research projects at USF’s CARRT and how they can become partners contact Dr. Stephanie Carey at scarey3@usf.edu for more information.
CARRT Flyer
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06/17
Rehab Week in London: Several researchers from CARRT will attend Rehab Week in London to present research and learn from engineers and clinicians in the field of rehabilitation and assistive technologies. Rehab Week combines INRS, ICORR, IFESS and BSRM society conferences to increase collaborative and innovative efforts. http://rehabweek.org
06/17
Presenting Dr. Ashley Knight: Ashley Knight successfully defended her dissertation titled, “The Development of a Platform Interface with the Use of Virtual Reality to Enhance Upper-Extremity Prosthetic Training and Rehabilitation.” Ashley graduates in August and will begin a post-doc in Bangkok. Congratulations Dr. Knight!
06/17
Girl Scouts Visit CARRT labs: Girl Scouts ages 6-9 visited the CARRT labs in June. Some girls were in a robotics camp and some were part of a coding camp. Dr. Reed, Dr. Alqasemi and Dr. Carey along with many engineering students inspired girls to become engineers and scientists.
05/17
ISPO in Cape Town, South Africa: Dr. Stephanie Carey, Dr. Rajiv Dubey and Ashley Knight (PhD candidate) traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to present at the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics World Congress. Ashley received a travel grant for her presentation describing her research on upper extremity prosthetic training using virtual reality. Dr. Carey also received a USF Faculty Travel Award to help fund her trip.
04/17
FL Department of Education – Division of Vocational Rehabilitation: Dr. Rajiv Dubey, Dr. Redwan Alqasemi and Stephen Sundarrao received funding to provide service to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other persons with disabilities to assess and train them on job related skills using the VR4VR system. The developed Virtual Reality for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR4VR) system is an immersive system that includes seven modules with different levels of difficulties and different distractors for assessment and training in job-related skills. A video of the system can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ElV7iIKp1M
03/17
Best MCOM Graduate Student Poster Presentation in Clinical Science Research: Four SPTRS students and two faculty received awards at USF Health’s 27th annual Research Day. DPT Class of 2017 students Roberto Aponte, Jamie Dolley, David Hoke, and Lucas Simari collaborated with faculty mentors Dr. Seok Hun Kim (SPTRS) and Dr. Kyle Reed (Mechanical Engineering) on a poster presentation entitled “Gait Symmetry Following Sand-Assisted Locomotor Training.” https://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/physicaltherapy/sptrs-usf-health-research-day-winners
02/17
NSF I/UCRC planning grant awarded: Dr. Stephanie Carey along with Dr. Rajiv Dubey, Dr. Kyle Reed, Dr. Redwan Alqasemi and Stephen Sundarrao received a NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers planning grant in order to drive innovation by facilitating partnerships between universities, companies and government agencies. The funding will be used to conduct a meeting in Sept. 2017 to prepare USF’s CARRT to become a site for the NSF iPERFORM Center for Assistive Technologies to Enhance Human Performance http://iperform.uta.edu
11/16
Millicent Schlafly was a Student Winner: "Effect of Knee Height on Gait Symmetry" at the 9th Annual College of Engineering Research Day http://www.usf.edu/engineering/research/research-day.aspx

Earlier News

Dr. Redwan Alqasemi is the first researcher at USF to be awarded the National Science Foundation's I-Corps Teams grant to validate and commercialize his research on robotic grippers.
Dr. Kyle Reed has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation on the "Perception of Accurate Interactions through Bimanual Integrated Forces and Motions."
Dr. Rajiv Dubey has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation's MRI program to acquire CAREN-Extended Virtual Reality Simulation system http://www.motekmedical.com/products/caren
MOSI-sponsored minority group visits CARRT labs and interact with students and various robotics projects
07/18
Tampa Girl Scout camp focuses on STEM and visits CARRT labs: http://www.wfla.com/story/22885433/girl-scout-camp-focuses-on-
07/17
Girls, Inc. of Pinellas County visits CARRT labs and interact with students and various robotics projects: http://www.girlsinc-pinellas.org/
2/22
Mobile Dance Platform Demonstrated at USF Engineering Expo: Mobile Dance Platform Demonstrated at USF Engineering Expo: CARRT engineering students team up with students from the School of Theatre & Dance to demonstrate a mobile dance platform that integrates technology and the arts. Omni-directional wheels and control allow the platform to move and turn independently, giving the dancers greater control of its motion.

2012

11/19
CARRT Researchers Go Weightless: Dr. Stephanie Carey and Dr. Derek Lura experience microgravity during a parabolic flight to study the effects of reduced gravity on the performance of upper body tasks. The goal of this study is to better understand the effect of gravity on manipulation in order to better train astronauts prior to space missions.

11/7
CARRT is hosting a VETERANS' OPEN HOUSE on Rehabilitation Engineering Wednesday Nov. 7th from 11am to 2pm in the Marshal Students Center Amphitheatre: Explore research & internship opportunities in Robotics & Prosthetics! USF Veterans have an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of technologies that will help our wounded warriors. Find out how & what opportunities are available for you to get involved! Contact Dr. Stephanie Carey at 813-974-5765 or 813-974-9651.
11/5

CARRT has won an NSF award to acquire a state of the art virtual reality simulation system. The CAREN Extended system will be purchased from Motek Medical and will be delivered & setup early 2013. For more information about the CAREN Extended system, visit here.

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