FAU,Erlangen,Professor,Castellini

FAU,Erlangen,Professor,Castellini

About 15 years ago I was in this conference

and this technique called gaze tracking was presented there.

And there was this kid,

10 years old girl with cerebral palsy,

so they put her on a chair and presented her with a screen

on which a virtual keyboard was shown.

And using gaze tracking she was able to write,

Hello, my name is Carlotta.

That was such a moving moment

and that's where I decided that I wanted to work

in this specific area of robotics.

Here at FAU we are in the area of rehabilitation

and assistive robotics.

So that means conceiving, building and testing devices

which help people with musculoskeletal conditions

regain their lost functions.

Rehabilitation is about helping people in a therapy,

so for instance after a stroke.

Assistive robotics is more about people who cannot walk anymore

or people with amputations, so in that case

our devices need to become a life companion of these people.

My keyword is translation.

My idea here is that if we don't translate our ideas

effectively to the clinics and then possibly to the market

or to the society, then it's useless.

So if your solution only works in your lab,

and it's like the typical engineer's toy, right?

I'm an engineer as well, so I know what I'm talking about.

We're so proud of our own toys.

We build them and they work in the lab,

but then they must work on people with people in the clinics.

And that's the main point here.

So I hope that in the turn of 10 to 15 years

we can make an impact on people who are suffering in the clinics

here in the area and as well in Germany and why not in the whole world.