Sulzer, James

Short Biography

James comes from Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2009. After developing a lightweight, low-impedance powered knee brace, he investigated the effects of knee flexion assistance on people with Stiff-Knee gait after stroke.

As leader of an entrepreneurial interest group, James helped develop and launch several programs at Northwestern, including its first business idea competition, graduate applied research fair (both now annual events), and a medical device development course involving the engineering, medical, business and law schools.

James also received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern in 2006 after developing a novel method of joint actuation which manipulates the moment arm of a cable-driven joint. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2002, graduating summa cum laude with distinction from Ohio State University. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1980.

James has been a postdoc in the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab since November 2009. He is currently investigating the utility of neurofeedback using functional magnetic resonance imaging and its role in motor control.

Journal publications

Sulzer, J S, K E Gordon, Y Y Dhaher, M A Peshkin, J L Patton. Pre-swing knee flexion assistance is coupled with hip abduction in people with Stiff-Knee gait after stroke. Stroke, vol. 41, pp. 1709–1714, 2010.

Sulzer, J S, R A Roiz, M A Peshkin, J L Patton. A highly backdrivable, lightweight knee actuator for investigating gait in stroke. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. vol. 25, no. 3. pp. 539-548. 2009.

Sulzer, J S, M A Peshkin, J L Patton. Pulling Your Strings. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine. vol. 15, no. 3. pp. 70-78. 2008.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings

Sulzer J S, V S Chib, M-C Hepp-Reymond, S Kollias, R Gassert. BOLD correlations to force in precision grip: An event-related fMRI study. IEEE International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Boston, MA. September, 2011.

Sulzer, J S, K E Gordon, T G Hornby, M A Peshkin, J L Patton. Adaptation to Knee Flexion Torque During Gait. In Proc. Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), Kyoto, Japan. 2009.

Sulzer, J S, M A Peshkin, J L Patton. Design of a Mobile, Inexpensive Device for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation at Home. In Proc. Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), Noordwijk, Netherlands, 2007.

Sulzer J, A Salamat, V S Chib, and J E Colgate. A Behavioral Adaptation Approach to Identifying Visual Dependence of Haptic Perception. In Proc. Second Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. Tsukuba, Japan. March, 2007.

Sulzer J, M A Peshkin and J L Patton. Catastrophe and Stability Analysis of a Cable-driven Joint. In Proc. IEEE International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. New York, NY. August, 2006.

Sulzer J, S-B Kamalakkannan, D R Morr, J Wiechel, B Tanner and D Guenther. Simplifed MADYMO Model of the IHRA Head-form Impactor. In Proc. SAE Int. Conf. on Digital Human Modeling. Lyon, France July 2006.

Sulzer JS, MA Peshkin, JL Patton. MARIONET: An exotendon-driven Series Elastic Actuator for exerting joint torque. In Proc. Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR). Chicago, IL June 2005.

External link

Personal website