<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:11.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" style="width:6.25in">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><img width="599" height="171" style="width:6.2395in;height:1.7812in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.png@01DB3FF1.32797350" alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering"></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="background:white">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:30.0pt 15.0pt 7.5pt 15.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:21.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none">On Controlling a Pediatric Lower-Limb Exoskeleton Using Finite-State Machine and Electroencephalography</span></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Ayman Alamir</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">December 9, 2024; 10:45 AM - 12:45 PM (CST)<br>
Location: Room E413 - Engineering Building 2</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Dr. Jose L. Contreras-Vidal, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Co-Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Dr. Lu Wang, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Members:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Dr. Gerard Francisco, M.D. | Dr. David Mayerich, Ph.D. | Dr. Jinsook Roh, Ph.D. </span>
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 15.0pt 15.0pt 15.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none">Abstract</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">There are approximately 330,000 American children aged 5 to 17 who suffer from ambulatory difficulties that adversely impact their quality of life. Robotic-Assisted
Gait Training (RAGT) has been shown to be an effective intervention for motor-related conditions in children with mobility disabilities. Compared to traditional therapy, RAGT enables longer duration, higher intensity training sessions, more precise movement
patterns, and decreased physical demands on therapists. Furthermore, the advent of portable, powered exoskeletons, while still relatively rare in pediatric applications, has significantly increased accessibility to treatment, allowing for more frequent therapy
sessions. Integrating that with a brain-computer interface (BCI) could further optimize the learning process and accelerate motor function recovery. To address this need, the Laboratory for Non-Invasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems at the University of
Houston in collaboration with Center for Wearable Exoskeletons at TIRR Memorial Hermann has developed a Pediatric Lower-Extremity Gait System (P-LEGS).
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">This dissertation aims at building a control system for P-LEGS that can utilize explicit manual input or electroencephalography (EEG) signals to command the device
to generate movement trajectories. The process of developing, evaluating, and prototyping the various levels of control for the system, as well as the proposed movement intent decoding pediatric BCI, is delineated herein. This dissertation contributes to the
pediatric rehabilitation community by introducing a novel exoskeleton system that can provide customizable RAGT and function as a mobility assistive device. Furthermore, it advances the fields of neural engineering and neuroscience through the development
of a pediatric BCI capable of decoding movement intent.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><img width="599" height="82" style="width:6.2395in;height:.8541in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.png@01DB3FF1.32797350" alt="Engineered For What's Next"></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span style="mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>