Paraplegic Berkeley Student Walks Across Stage to Get His Diploma
More Here: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/05/ ... z1MVjniLb5Austin Whitney, 22, strapped on the exoskeleton, a device designed by UC Berkeley researchers that enabled him to move his legs during the walk across the stage.
Whitney, a double major in history and political science, grew up in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and was paralyzed in July 2007 when he crashed his car after drinking with friends, according to the paper. He was hospitalized for 41 days.
"When I was getting out of the hospital four years ago, the last thing I was thinking about was graduating from college," he said, his face beaming. "But I set that as my goal above everything else. And here I am, walking for my diploma.
"It makes me very hesitant to use the word 'impossible' ever again," he told the Oakland Tribune.
The robotic legs, which involve leg-brace supports and a slim boxlike apparatus strapped to Whitney's back, are the latest version of an exoskeleton developed by UC Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni and his team of graduate-student researchers in the Robotics and Human Engineering Lab.
