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English Script Request

tamaryllis
Complete / 400 Words
by Seli 0:00 - 2:10

My singular goal was to become the greatest mountain climber in the world. At the age of seventeen I set out to climb mount Washington, where we intended to be a single day out ice climbing turned into a four day winter epic. Both my biological legs were amputated due to tissue damage from frostbite. I was fitted with prostheses and I was shocked by the lack of technological sophistication. I said to myself, this cannot be what exists in this day and age of space travel. At the time I made it my mission to advance prostheses. In fact, it was only twelve months from when my limbs were amputated that I was climbing at a more advanced level with artificial limbs than I'd ever achieved before the accident. My research group here at MIT has a long history of innovation. We developed an artificial knee to be used by people who are amputated above the knee that has a brain that's able to sense it's environment, so it adapts as a person moves, so it figures out to modulate its own resistance to enhance the biomechanics of its wearer. We've developed a bionic foot/ankle device. This is the first prosthesis in history that's powered. It emulates muscle function. With this, it actually injects energy into the walking or running gait. Within minutes, often a person is able to walk normally and says to us, I have my body back, my life back. Here at MIT we're advancing the fundamental interfaces between the human body and the built design world. Electrical interfaces, mechanical, dynamic. We're developing the fundamental building blocks with the elimination of human disability. I love designing, I love every few months upgrading my legs so I have better balance, I can move faster. It's interesting because my biological body as I age gets worse and worse due to age related degeneration, but the artificial part of my body gets better in time. So I predict by the time I'm eighty years old my balance will be better than an eighteen year old.

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