Benjamin A. Rellinger of Ottoville, a biomedical engineering major at Case Western Reserve University, has won the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship to continue his studies in science, mathematics and engineering.
All honorees aspire to become either medical doctors or earn their doctorates and do research in various fields of science and engineering.
Rellinger is among the 323 Goldwater Scholars chosen from a field of 1,081 candidates, nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. Of the recipients, 32 are math majors, 234 from the sciences, 47 in engineering and 10 in computer science-related majors. Each recipient, a sophomore or junior from the United States, will receive a 1- or 2-year scholarship to cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500.
People take for granted their ability to pick things up and move around their environment. Individuals who have lost their motor functions due to disease or injuries may someday thank Rellinger, who has been working in the lab of Dr. Dawn Taylor, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Case School of Engineering, since his first year there.
He has been working to engineer new biomedical interventions that can return lost functions by using neural interfacing and neural prostheses.
“Basically, that means that I am trying to get the human brain to talk to computers, so that a disabled person can control a wheelchair or even their own paralyzed limbs using only their thoughts,” he explains.
As an undergraduate, Rellinger has the opportunity to explore this engineering question by measuring the activity of the brain to understand how it encodes movement intent and then uses this encoding to control assistive devices.
“The big question is ‘how?’. The need for speed and high bandwidth in control of assistive devices has to be balanced with the currently-available technology,” Rellinger explains. “If the current hardware isn’t totally up to the task, creative decoding strategies can be devised to pick up the slack.”
Rellinger is currently working on that challenge by investigating, in an animal study, how individuals control brain cells. Also, he is exploring whether these animals can group their neurons into larger functional units so that current hardware can more easily detect voluntary signals.
He credits his dad as getting him interested in science through electronics and early on reading of “Popular Science.”
“I like science because it is a consistent way of classifying and explaining the world. There aren’t any areas for subjectivity; it doesn’t matter who’s taking the measurements or where they live,” said Rellinger.
At Case, Rellinger is active as the vice president of scholarship for Delta Epsilon fraternity and a teaching assistant for the first-year circuit lab in engineering and a supplemental instructor in mathematics. He also bikes around Cleveland during the summers, paints watercolors and enjoys tinkering with electronics.
In addition to the Goldwater Scholarship, Rellinger has received support for his academic studies as a National Merit Scholar and as a scholarship recipient of the Case Alumni Association and SOURCE for research.
Rellinger said all this hard work at Case is leading toward a future doctorate degree in biomedical engineering and eventually a research position at a university to continue his neural interface work.
Someday, he envisions changing the lives of people like Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist, and others now confined to wheelchairs and giving them back a life with more independence and mobility.
source: www.delphosherald.com
« Jamie Fields Scholarship awarded | Persistence pays off for Bahr in form of scholarship »