Engineering Education Blog: Benjamin Palmer patents artificial leg technology
by Alice Agogino
closeAuthor: Alice Agogino
Name: Alice Agogino
Email: agogino@berkeley.edu
Site: http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/agogino/
About: Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and is affiliated faculty at the Haas School of Business in their Operations and Information Technology Management Group. Her research interests include: community-based design; sustainable engineering; intelligent learning systems; information retrieval and data mining; multiobjective and strategic product design; nonlinear optimization; probabilistic modeling; intelligent control and manufacturing; sensor validation, fusion and diagnostics; wireless sensor networks; multimedia and computer-aided design; design databases; design theory and methods; MEMS/NEMS synthesis and computer-aided design; artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems; and gender/ethnic equity.
She has served in a number of administrative positions at UC Berkeley, including Chair of the Faculty Senate, Associate Dean of Engineering and Faculty Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost in Educational Development and Technology. Prof. Agogino also served as Director for Synthesis, an NSF-sponsored coalition of eight universities with the goal of reforming undergraduate engineering education, and continues as PI for the NEEDS (www.needs.org) and SMETE.ORG digital libraries of courseware in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.
Prof. Agogino received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (1975), M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (1978) from the University of California at Berkeley and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University (1984). Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, she worked in industry for Dow Chemical, General Electric and SRI International. She has authored over 150 scholarly publications; has won numerous teaching, best paper and research awards; and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). At NAE she served on the Committee on Engineering Education, working on the Technologically Speaking and the Engineer 2020 projects. She is currently a member of the National Research Council's Board on Education and the Women in Academic Science Engineering Committee. She has supervised 66 MS projects/theses, 26 doctoral dissertations and numerous undergraduate researchers.See Authors Posts (387) · November 4th, 2007 · 1 Comment
Today in History – November 4, 1946 – Benjamin Palmer patents artificial leg technology. The leg had a relatively noiseless pliable joint that preserved its contour in all positions and contained tendons of gut and springs to give more elasticity, stength, durability and freedom of motion than previously available. It was by no means the first artificial leg, but was the first to be patented in the U.S. with these features. According to the inMotion website: the first written record of a prosthesis is the Rig-Veda, an ancient sacred poem of India written in Sanskrit between 3500 and 1800 B.C. The poem recounts the story of a warrior, Queen Vishpla, who lost her leg in battle, was fitted with an iron prosthesis, and returned to combat.
Today, biomedical engineering and bioengineering combine multiple fields of biology and engineering. Biomedical/Bio-engineers work closely with biologists, medical doctors and health practictioners to develop medical instruments, artificial organs, prosthetic devices, drug delivery systems, diagnostics and imaging systems, and tissue engineering. Our Biomedical and Bioengineering Education Community site has related news, events and curricular resources. Also see our resources for and about persons with disabilities in science and engineering.
Also on this date, Faraday discovered diamagnetism in 1845, the first cash register was patented by James and John Ritty in 1879 and African American Thomas Elkins patents an improved refrigerator design in 1879.
Tags: African American · BioEngineering and Biomedical Engineering · Broadening Participation
1 response so far ↓
1 swagatika mishra // Apr 16, 2009 at 3:22 am
the information was really eye-opening , would request you to keep updating .
thanks.
Leave a Comment