The Técnico PhD graduate Rui Coelho (Mechanical Engineering) was one of the winners of the 1st edition of the “ULisboa – redeSAÚDE Awards”, in the “Best PhD Work in Applied Research” category. The award ceremony took place on November 30, at the 5th annual conference of redeSAÚDE.

“I am deeply honoured to receive this award that focuses on the interface between engineering and medicine, which I have been exploring in recent years as a researcher”., says the PhD graduate.

“I wanted to deepen the understanding of the neuromechanics of human movement, in particular, the ankle impedance modulation, aiming to develop support systems for motor rehabilitation of neurological patients”, says Rui Coelho. The work was carried out at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IDMEC), in the Human Robotics Lab, and supervised by professor Jorge Martins (Department of Mechanical Engineering) in collaboration with Dr. Hermano Igo Krebs, from MIT Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation.

According to the PhD graduate, his work stood out because “it is once again demonstrated that it is at the interface between engineering and medicine that we will find the solutions to problems that, by nature, do not belong exclusively to a specific scientific domain”.

Rui Coelho became aware of this award by his supervisor. “I decided to apply to this award to make Técnico research work in this field more widely known, in particular at IDMEC”, he shares.

The “ULisboa – redeSAÚDE Awards” aim to encourage study and research in the field of health, and to recognise the best Masters and Doctoral works carried out at Universidade de Lisboa in this field.

The jury of the 1st edition was chaired by Maria Helena Monteiro, professor at ISCSP. Other members of the jury were professors Mário Gaspar Silva (Técnico), Manuel Laranja (ISEG), Cláudia Lobato (Técnico), Carlos Farinha (Faculty of Sciences – ULisboa), and Francisca Leite, Director at Hospital da Luz Learning Health and Hugo Gamboa, founder of Plux.