Senator Joseph A. Griffo (R-NY) got a sneak peek at a $4 million, 21st-century research facility at Clarkson University (Clarkson), Potsdam, New York. When completed, the university’s Nanoengineering and Biotechnology Lab will house 21 student researchers from all levels of study.
(From left) Kevin Fite, PhD, explains his research to Senator Joseph A. Griffo (R-NY), who helped secure $950,000 for the lab construction costs. Photograph by Christopher Lenney, courtesy of Clarkson University.
Engineers already are working to develop an intelligent prosthetic leg that will use state-of-the-art sensors and processors to interact more smoothly with the human muscles.
As soldiers are coming home from war, Clarkson is working to help some of them return to their full potential by working with the U.S. Army to create new and advanced prosthetic limbs for injured veterans and service members. It is their goal to create a single lower-limb prosthesis that amputees can take underwater and can use to run and jump that would eventually allow military personnel to return to duty, said Kevin B. Fite, PhD, assistant professor at Clarkson’s Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, in a northern New York-based Watertown Daily Times article.
Physical-therapy majors will also be involved in the prosthetic research and will eventually work with soldiers from Fort Drum, New York.
Clarkson researchers are also working directly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security, and other government agencies to develop the most up-to-date face, fingerprint, and eye-recognition systems as well as working on complex algorithms that will anticipate and prevent security breaches within computer software programs.
“These are opportunities for our students to help create, in essence, the future in biometric studies and prosthetic devices, science fields where we’re sure they are going to be able to get jobs and lead the nation,” said Clarkson President Anthony G. Collins, PhD.
Linked to the Air Force Research Lab in Rome, New York, research in the 10,000-square-foot facility is being geared primarily toward military and government programs. But Collins said he anticipates it will have an impact on the general public as well.
Construction on the labs is coming to a close, and the research groups will be moving their work into the new facility over the holidays.
