Regeneron and Society for Science have named the top finalists in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest international high school science competition.
More than $9 million was awarded to the finalists, who were evaluated based on their projects’ creativity, innovation and level of scientific inquiry. The competition featured nearly 1,700 young scientists from the U.S. and more than 60 countries, regions and territories across the world.
Chinmayi Goyal of Yorktown High School was awarded First Place and $6000 in the category of Robotics and Intelligent Machines.
Her Project is named MyoAssist: AI-Based Movement Assistance System.
The Project Summary points out that “Nearly 1 in 8 people in the U.S. suffer from movement disorders, significantly impacting their quality of life. Neuromuscular disabilities cost the healthcare system $420 billion annually. Despite this, current solutions remain ineffective, with 45% of assistive device users reporting no improvement. Existing technologies cannot proactively monitor neuromuscular health for the elderly and disabled, and offer limited adaptability to varying muscular conditions.”
The Project Summary goes on to say, “To address this gap, MyoAssist—a novel, user-driven, 3-in-1 assistance system—is developed. MyoAssist detects movement disabilities, evaluates their extent, and mitigates neuromuscular impairments through dynamic, proactive assistive intervention.
“The system leverages advanced AI-algorithms and state-of-the-art physics-based neuromechanical simulation models that have been validated against clinical data, making the process computationally efficient and widely accessible.
“When tested for sarcopenia and neurodegenerative conditions across standardized biomechanics tasks, MyoAssist was robust in providing precise compensatory assistance to mimic near-healthy movement (99.2% accuracy).
“Additionally, MyoAssist effectively evaluated the level of disability based solely on user movement. This eliminates the need for complex biological imaging and provides a non-invasive early detection method to monitor and assess neuromuscular disease progression.
“MyoAssist is a cost-effective scalable advancement in AI-based, user-centric assistive technology that will revolutionize the field of medical robotics and improve overall quality of life.”
