Pitt Research

Known as the Olympics of assistive technologies, CYBATHLON challenges teams to develop assistive technologies suitable for people with disabilities. Pitt’s Rehab Neural Engineering Labs scored a perfect 100 points, beating teams from Italy, Thailand, Hungary and more, none of which scored more than 50 points. They credit their success to their pilot—Phillip McKenzie—who has electrodes implanted on the surface of his hand rather than their competition's pilots who have non-implanted electrodes. McKenzie is excited to participate again in the future, not just for his own competitive enjoyment, but to advance the science that may someday help him and many others. https://lnkd.in/dhSk3xJ7

A University of Pittsburgh research team is embarking on a project to study wound care in Ukraine with funding from the MTEC | Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium, a nonprofit organization managed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The project, “Characterization of Wound Infection and Its Electroceutical Management in Civilian and Military Wounds in Ukraine,” will receive funding of almost $1.9 million over two years to study the effectiveness of a wireless electroceutical dressing—a bandage that generates an electrical field—in treating traumatic wounds sustained during combat in both military members and civilians. Since isolated environments and transportation challenges can delay treatment at medical facilities, infection is a major concern for wounds and burns sustained during military conflicts. https://lnkd.in/enVR8aEw

Based in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, the Physical Activity Research Center (PARC) explores the connections between physical activity and health. Led by Duck-chul Lee, PARC is currently overseeing a five-year, $3.5M exercise clinical trial to test the effects of different doses of resistance exercise on cardiovascular disease risk factors among adults who are overweight or obese, known as the DoReps project. https://lnkd.in/d4a8XKrS

Meet our Student Innovator of the Year! Adi Mittal is a student at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is transforming aneurysm detection with innovation and entrepreneurship. https://pitt.ly/4iycfR0

New research led by Amanda C Poholek uncovers how inhaled house dust mites, a common trigger of allergic asthma, activate the immune system and drive this disease in mice. The findings, published recently in Nature Immunology, offer important insights into how seemingly harmless substances such as dust mites, pet dander and pollen can overcome the immune system to trigger allergic reactions and could eventually pave the way for identifying new therapeutics to treat and manage allergic asthma. https://lnkd.in/d28fEqxh

Today the University announced the creation of the Vijayalakshmi Innovation Center in Women’s Health Analytics and Research, a global initiative to leverage advanced artificial intelligence tools and global collaborations to address disparities in women’s health. The Center is fueled by an investment from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a gift from Vishnu Vardhan and Harsha Vardhini, siblings and co-founders of Vizzhy Inc., a generative health care AI systems company that works to locate the root causes of metabolic diseases and develop personalized health management guidance. Learn more about how Pitt is harnessing biomedical data to impact health outcomes: https://pitt.ly/4iE4CIO

People see humble scientists as more trustworthy, according to a new study led by Pitt researchers. The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, finds that scientists who display “intellectual humility” seem more reliable than those who don’t. “Research has shown that having intellectual humility—which is an awareness that one’s knowledge or beliefs might be incomplete or wrong —is associated with engaging in more effortful and less biased information processing,” says lead author Jonah Koetke, a graduate student at Pitt. https://lnkd.in/eCKfvM4i

The University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering is among four groundbreaking high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission research and development projects that are selected to receive a total of $11 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Electricity and Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. The Swanson School of Engineering will lead a $3.3 million university/industry partnership using artificial intelligence to optimize an HVDC converter design for increased power density and decreased cost. https://lnkd.in/eDrxngPq

Published in Molecular Neurodegeneration, University of Pittsburgh researchers independently validated a new blood test platform that can simultaneously measure more than a hundred biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease. The platform might improve clinicians’ ability to capture the multifaceted nature of Alzheimer’s pathology and streamline early disease diagnostics. Early detection of pathological changes associated with Alzheimer's disease, including signs of neuroinflammation and dysfunction in brain blood vessel function and nerve cell communication, is key to improving effectiveness of newly developed infusion treatments and to stopping or slowing down disease progression. But the current system for diagnosing Alzheimer's is resource and time-intensive and can be burdensome for patients who must undergo invasive medical procedures. https://lnkd.in/eDntsXRj

For the first time, an international cadre of electrical engineers has developed a new method for photonic in-memory computing that could make optical computing a reality in the near future. Published in the journal Nature Photonics, the team comprising members from the University of Pittsburgh, UC Santa Barbara, Università degli Studi di Cagliari and the Tokyo Institute of Technology demonstrates a unique solution that addresses current limitations of optical memory that have yet to combine non-volatility, multibit storage, high switching speed, low switching energy and high endurance in a single platform. https://lnkd.in/eRK26jaD