Rehabilitation Research

Rehabilitation Research is sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF). This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

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Rehabilitation Research The U.S. National Science Foundation invests in research to address challenges faced by persons with disabilities and patients undergoing rehabilitation after illness or injury. This work includes the development of assistive and rehabilitative technologies to enhance quality of life and provide greater opportunities for gainful employment, as well as fundamental research to understand human-machine interactions.

Find funding for rehabilitation research ### Assistive technologies and devices NSF supports the development of technology to help improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. ### Rehabilitation robotics NSF supports research on the use of machines to help patients in rehabilitation.

### Biomedical engineering NSF supports fundamental and transformative research that integrates engineering and life sciences to solve biomedical problems. ### Human-machine interfaces and communication NSF supports research to explore how the human brain can interact and connect with machines in ways that can help patients and individuals with disabilities.

NSF supports research on the mechanical function of cells, organs, tissues and organisms and the effects of physical forces on living things. ### Biomechanics and Mechanobiology (BMMB) Supports fundamental research on the mechanics of living systems. The program emphasizes multiscale mechanics approaches that integrate across molecular, cell, tissue and organ domains in the study of organisms.

### Disability and Rehabilitation Engineering (DARE) Supports engineering research to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. This involves developing new technologies, devices or software and advancing knowledge of human motion and injury mechanisms. ### Engineering of Biomedical Systems Supports research projects that integrate engineering and life sciences to solve biomedical problems.

Projects use an engineering framework to understand physiological processes and provide long-term benefits to humanity. ### Mind, Machine and Motor Nexus (M3X) Facilitates research on the dynamic interactions between humans and intelligent machines, focusing on the emergence of behavior from such interactions.

### Cognitive Neuroscience (CogNeuro) Supports groundbreaking proposals that utilize brain-based assessments to improve our knowledge of the neural circuits that regulate cognitive processes. ### Foundational Research in Robotics (FRR) Next Required Due Date: Proposals Accepted Anytime Supports research to enhance the capabilities of robots or robotic systems with significant levels of both computational ability and physical complexity.

### Human-Centered Computing (HCC) ### Perception, Action & Cognition (PAC) Supports research on the basic principles of human motor control and coordination or sensory and cognitive processes that could impact the optimal development of rehabilitation interventions. Posted September 30, 2002 ### Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence (SL) Supports research on learning in humans, animals and machines.

It also focuses on augmented intelligence, which enhances human cognitive function through interactions with others, through contextual variations and through technology.

Posted September 18, 2019 ### Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science (SCH) * **Artificial Intelligence** * Publication date: November 7, 2024 * Last updated: May 8, 2026 Image credits & captions on this page A prosthetic arm from "Human Plus: Real Lives + Real Engineering," an interactive exhibition funded by the National Science Foundation about engineers and users who design technologies to help themselves and others achieve their goals.

The "Human Plus: Real Lives + Real Engineering" exhibition tells compelling stories of engineers and users who design and use technologies to help themselves and others achieve their goals -- from everyday routines to lifelong dreams. Human Plus offers visitors a chance to explore and create a range of low-tech and high-tech tools that restore and extend human abilities.

Throughout the exhibit, visitors experience the creative, dynamic engineering process, which involves the user every step of the way. From customized wheelchairs for off-roading to a vest that lets you feel music to neuroprosthetic limbs controlled by a user's thoughts, Human Plus showcases the innovative field of engineering that improves our lives every day.

The "Human Plus: Real Lives + Real Engineering" exhibition was created by the New York Hall of Science in partnership with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the Quality of Life Technology Center with funding from the National Science Foundation.

Credit: Photo by Andrew Kelly/New York Hall of Science Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, are testing a wearable device that can provide tactile feedback to patients who are undergoing rehabilitation.

Credit: UCSD Jacobs School HARMONY, a first-of-its-kind, two-armed, robotic rehabilitation exoskeleton that could provide a new method of high-quality, data-driven therapy to patients suffering from spinal and neurological injuries.

Credit: Cockrell School of Engineering Marva Lawrence, 2022 REM participant with the CELL-MET ERC, at work on her research project, at work on her research project entitled "Scaffold Manufacturing for Engineered Heart Tissues," in the Bifano Lab at Boston University. Marva will graduate with a B. S.

in Optical Engineering from Norfolk State University in December 2023. She plans to pursue her doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus on biomedical applications. Credit: Boston University Photonics Center A primate's hand on the video screen at the Cortical Neural Prosthetics Laboratory at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan.

Brain-machine interfaces have allowed people with paralysis to control computers, robotic arms, as well as their own hands via functional electrical stimulation. While impactful, these solutions have yet to restore the naturalism and dexterity of the native hand.

In this work, Michigan Engineering researchers demonstrated for the first time the ability to simultaneously control independent and simultaneous movements of two groups of fingers within the hand.

They implanted two nonhuman primates with intracortical sensors in the hand area of primary motor cortex and used a machine learning algorithm to make real-time predictions of the movements the monkeys were intending to make from recordings of their brain activity.

Such technology could have a substantial impact on hand-related brain-machine interfaces, potentially improving performance and functionality of people with paralysis using similar technologies. Credit: Marcin Szczepanski/Michigan Engineering The fossilized skull of Australopithecus sediba specimen MH1 and a finite element model of its cranium depicting strains experienced during a simulated bite on its premolars.

"Warm" colors indicate regions of high strain, "cool" colors indicate regions of low strain. A recent study found that A. sediba did not have the jaw and tooth structure necessary to exist on a steady diet of hard foods.

More about this image A National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported study by an international team of researchers has found that Australopithecus sediba, a tiny prehuman species that lived about 2 million years ago in southern Africa, did not have the jaw and tooth structure necessary to exist on a steady diet of hard foods. Researcher David Strait, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St.

Louis and leader of the research team, says most australopiths had adaptations in their jaws, teeth and faces that allowed them to process foods that were difficult to chew or crack open; for example, they were able to efficiently bite down on foods with very high force.

Justin Ledogar, a former graduate student of Straits and now a researcher at the University of New England in Australia, says "Australopithecus sediba is thought by some researchers to lie near the ancestry of Homo, the group to which our species belongs. Then we find that A.

sediba had an important limitation on its ability to bite powerfully; if it had bitten as hard as possible on its molar teeth using the full force of its chewing muscles, it would have dislocated its jaw." Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study describes biomechanical testing of a computer-based model of an A. sediba skull, recovered in 2008 from Malapa, a cave near Johannesburg, South Africa.

The biomechanical methods used in the study are similar to those used by engineers to test whether planes, cars, machine parts or other mechanical devices are strong enough to avoid breaking during use. A. sediba has been thought to be a possible ancestor or close relative of Homo.

Australopiths appear in the fossil record about 4 million years ago. While they have some human traits, like the ability to walk upright on two legs, most of them lack other characteristically human features like a large brain, flat face with small jaw and teeth, and advanced tool use. While the study does not directly address whether A.

sediba is actually a close evolutionary relative of early Homo, it does provide further evidence that dietary changes were shaping the evolutionary paths of early humans. [Research supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS 07-25219, BCS 07-25183, BCS 07-25147, BCS 07-25141, BCS 07-25136, BCS 07-25126, BCS 07-25122, BCS 07-25078 and NSF DBI 07-43460.]

To learn more, see NSF press release 16-015, Early human ancestor lacked jaws of a nutcracker, study finds. Credit: MH1 by Brett Eloff, courtesy Lee Berger and University of the Witwatersrand * Our Directorates & Offices * Budget, Performance & Financial Reporting Let us know how we're doing, and how we can make NSF. gov better for you.

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