IHMC

Nearly 70 years ago, when the Department of Defense (DoD) needed to test and evaluate its weapons and warfighting systems, military computers could handle about 10 kilobytes of information.

Today, a full-scale DoD test exercise can generate a petabyte of data — the equivalent of Netflix’s entire video library.

Analysts could drown in that volume of data. Yet, the stakes could not be higher for DoD Test & Evaluation teams to find errors, anomalies, and vulnerabilities. That’s why the work IHMC Senior Research Associates Larry Bunch and Micael Vignati have been doing for a DoD grant is so important — and exciting.

Bunch is the principal investigator for this project, which will empower DoD Operational Test & Evaluation personnel with unprecedented interactive multidimensional data visualization technologies for high-performance multivariate data analysis. Read more about this work in the newest edition of the IHMC newsletter, available on our website.

STEM-Talk Episode 146

What a revolution might it be if the healthcare system was built around our actual health, as opposed to the way it currently centers on treating an injury or disease once it occurs?

That’s one of the ideas that Dr. Dan Pardi explores in the latest episode of STEM-Talk (Episode 146), available now. In his conversation with IHMC Founder Dr. Ken Ford and IHMC Senior Research Scientist Dr. Marcas Bamman, Pardi talks about the flaws in a health system that really is built around treatment, rather than health and wellness support — and what it might take to switch that focus.

We also cover Pardi's early career in bioinformatics and how a trip to Moscow led to his doctoral research of sleep and treatments for narcolepsy. We talk about the Loop Model to Adopt and Sustain Health Behaviors, a behavior model he developed during his Ph.D. studies. Finally, the conversation moves to the concepts of “actual health,” health performance experts and a shift in what aging means that he believes is important to improving the quality of life for all of us.

It's good stuff. Listen today wherever you enjoy podcasts.

STEM-Talk Episode 146 Dan Pardi talks about behaviors to improve healthspan

For more than 25 years, Dr. Marcas Bamman has been directing research on the resilience and performance of the human body. His work has ranged from elite performers to people with chronic diseases. We're grateful to those who came to hear his Evening Lecture last night at our Pensacola campus. If you couldn't be there in person, keep an eye on our YouTube channel, where video of the talk will be posted in the coming weeks.

IHMC has a long legacy of excellence in exoskeleton research. The potential benefits of exoskeletons include increased strength and endurance, reduced joint loading, resistance exercise, rehabilitation after injury, and enabling mobility for those with disease or disability.

Two exoskeleton projects at IHMC — Quix and Eva — are undergoing upgrades thanks to a robotics team that is itself been expanded in the last two years. Read more about this and other IHMC projects in the newest edition of the newsletter.

Quix is the fourth exoskeleton prototype developed by the IHMC exoskeleton team. It’s getting a new lease on life as the team has been upgrading the device and its software. Quix was designed to increase the mobility and independence of people with lower-body paralysis.

The team is now investigating potential applications for rehabilitation therapy.Team members have now developed another wearable robot, Eva, to help extend healthspan and the quality of life for workers who must use heavy personal protective equipment during physically demanding and hazardous work.

The revamp of Quix and the development of Eva are among the first major projects for the growing robotics team, and Research Scientist Dr. Robert Griffin said it has been exciting to see the way new personnel and ideas have enhanced the projects. Read more about Eva and Quix in our latest newsletter, available on our website now.

Last month's Science Saturday on Bottle Rockets was a big hit, as we hope these photos show. Many thanks to Pat Hayes for once again leading this session — he's the best. Our next Science Saturday is Dec. 17 on 3D Printing with Nicole Esposito. Visit our website to sign up now!

Human resilience, health, and performance is the latest frontier IHMC researchers have been exploring. The last Evening Lecture of 2022 in Pensacola will feature Dr. Marcas Bamman, a senior research scientist here at IHMC who leads the healthspan, resilience, and performance team. His Dec. 13 talk will focus on how IHMC research is leading the way to a better understanding of factors that determine human health and abilities, and how we can build on that foundation toward optimizing the human experience.
It is research that Marcas says ranges from “molecules to the whole human.” The lecture will include examples of research ranging from high performers exposed to extreme environments, to older adults and those with chronic disease or other health challenges. Marcas also will share a bit about the future of IHMC’s research in this field. You won’t want to miss it, so visit www.ihmc.us for details and to reserve your seat today.

Science Saturdays

The final Science Saturday of 2022 is coming up soon. Dec. 17, IHMC's own Nicole Esposito will lead a session on 3D printing -- the same technology that she and the rest of the robotics team use in our lab to make parts for the robots they are researching. Science Saturday is free to students in grades 3-6, thanks to our generous sponsors. Sign up your student today.

Science Saturdays Science Saturdays is a hands-on science program for kids in grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. Events take place on Saturday morning, once each month during the

IHMC STEM-Talk Episode 145

The latest episode of STEM-Talk is an "Ask Me Anything" -- where listeners do precisely that. Tune in to hear Dr. Ken Ford's takes on:

— Whether AI is becoming sentient.
— How women in midlife might protect their bodies from the negative effects of a slowing metabolism.
— A Stanford study that compared a low-carbohydrate diet with a Mediterranean diet.
— Whether fasting helps optimize cognitive performance.
— The future of hypersonic technology.

And start thinking of what you would ask! Share your questions for the next AMA episode in the comments below!

IHMC STEM-Talk Episode 145 Episode 145: Ken answers questions about hypersonic flight, sentient AI, ketogenic vs Mediterranean diets, and more

Human resilience, health, and performance is the latest frontier IHMC researchers have been exploring. The last Evening Lecture of 2022 in Pensacola will feature Dr. Marcas Bamman, a senior research scientist here at IHMC who leads the healthspan, resilience, and performance team. His Dec. 13 talk will focus on how IHMC research is leading the way to a better understanding of factors that determine human health and abilities, and how we can build on that foundation toward optimizing the human experience.

It is research that Marcas says ranges from “molecules to the whole human.” The lecture will include examples of research ranging from high performers exposed to extreme environments, to older adults and those with chronic disease or other health challenges. Marcas also will share a bit about the future of IHMC’s research in this field. You won’t want to miss it, so visit www.ihmc.us for details and to reserve your seat today.

Want to know more about what's going on at IHMC? Check out the latest issue of our newsletter, which features updates on the work our exoskeleton team is doing, the latest on our humanoid robot Nadia, and progress on construction of our human performance, resilience, and healthspan research complex, and much more. Read more here: https://www.ihmc.us/life/newsletter/

The Ocala campus' next Evening Lecture on Dec. 6 features Todd White, the founder of Dry Farm Wines. His talk, "Your Health- The Dirty Secrets of the Wine Industry," will focus on why it is important to enjoy healthy wines through moderating alcohol consumption (lower alcohol wines), which is vital for brain health and healthier aging. Todd is promoting a conversation to get real about our relationship with alcohol and how to drink more moderately with low alcohol, pure organic, natural wines. Learn more and register here: https://www.ihmc.us/life/evening_lectures/ocala-lecture-series/

Recently, IHMC kicked off a multi-year project sponsored by Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RX) with participants from AFRL’s 711th Human Performance Wing, Airman Systems Directorate (RH).

Our program “Augmenting and Assessing Performance in Extreme Environments” (A2PEX) aims for 1) real-time sensing via wearable sensors, and 2) assessment and augmentation of cognitive performance in missions conducted in extreme environments.

The goal is to develop a robust wearable system that helps overcome fatigue and other stressors by continually sensing, assessing, and augmenting Airmen and Guardian performance.

Principle Investigators are IHMC’s own Dr. Morley Stone and Dr. Tim Broderick. It draws on team members from our human performance, robotics, and human-centered computing teams — a truly cross disciplinary collaboration.

Academic partners in the project are The Ohio State University and Georgia Institute of Technology. Industry partners are Triple Ring Technologies, Abbott Biowearables, electroCore, and Polar Electro.

On Nov. 19, Science Saturday is back at our Pensacola campus, featuring Bottle Rockets with IHMC's Dr. Pat Hayes. We think it's pretty clear what students love about learning the basics of rocketry, so we asked Pat what he loves about it: "I guess mostly, the expression on the kids' faces, and watching their excitement and kind of awe at the power and speed of the rockets. Who knew that a soda bottle could fly higher than a house and faster than you can see? All the while they are learning some important basic physics, whether they know it or not 😊"

That's endorsement enough for us. Visit https://www.ihmc.us/life/science_saturdays/ to register now!

In the beginning of his practice, Toronto-based nephrologist Dr. Jason Fung routinely prescribed insulin for type 2 diabetics. Ultimately he changed course, realizing that type 2 diabetes is largely a dietary disease and therefore requires a dietary solution rather than a pharmaceutical one.

It's a shift he wishes more of his colleagues across the medical profession would embrace.

On the latest episode of STEM-Talk, we talk with Jason, who gained international attention for combining a low-carb diet with intermittent fasting to help thousands of overweight patients reverse their diabetes, lose weight, and improve their metabolic health. In addition to “The Obesity Code,” Jason is also the author of the “The Diabetes Code,” and “The Cancer Code.”

We enjoyed the talk, and we think you will as well.
https://www.ihmc.us/jason-fung-the-obesity-code-author-on-insulin-resistance-and-metabolic-health/

There's still time to reserve your seat at the IHMC Ocala Evening Lecture with Dr. Natalie Ebner. Her talk, “Aging Online: Determinants of Susceptibility to Deception in Later Life,” will focus on the losses due to elder fraud and the novel complexities and ambiguities the older population is faced with as they navigate cyberspace. The hope is that by better understanding what makes the aging brain susceptible to cyberfraud, we can better combat it. We hope you join us for this lecture. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/natalie-ebner-evening-lecture-tickets-425739778137

Ocala friends, Science Saturday is coming! On Nov. 12, join IHMC's Dr. Arash Mahyari, research scientist, to learn about cryptography — the study of writing and solving secret codes. Fifth-and sixth-graders will get the chance to make their own version of an enigma machine like the one you see here, and all students will have the chance to participate in hands-on activities involving the encoding and decoding of secret messages. The sessions are free to students in grades 3-6 thanks to the generosity of the season sponsors in Ocala — Lockheed Martin, Cox, Ron and Phyllis Ewers, and Ocala Electric. https://www.ihmc.us/life/science_saturdays/

The first thing when you think of when you hear the word "exoskeleton" might be insects, whose exoskeletons we all learned about in middle school biology. The second thing you think of might be Iron Man.

While we are a long way from recreating either of those in full in the lab, our IHMC team is doing amazing work on exoskeleton projects that aim to help reduce the physiological stress on remediation workers' bodies and that help people with lower limb paralysis walk again. Dr. Gwen Bryan leads our exoskeleton team and she shared an update on their work at a recent Evening Lecture.

If you couldn't be there in person, please watch her talk here: https://youtu.be/_AxlpvSJXh8

IHMC’s Ocala campus welcomes Dr. Natalie C. Ebner for an Evening Lecture delving into aging and susceptibility to online fraud.

On Nov. 17 in her talk “Aging Online: Determinants of Susceptibility to Deception in Later Life,” Ebner will focus on the losses due to elder fraud and the novel complexities and ambiguities the older population is faced with as they navigate cyberspace.

Ebner is an expert in experimental aging research. She holds an appointment in the University of Florida’s psychology department, where she has expanded her research to examine neuropsychological changes associated with cognition-emotion interactions and decision-making. She also has a joint appointment as faculty in the Florida Institute for Cyber Security Research. She is also affiliated with the Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, the Institute of Aging, the McNight Brain Institute, the Pain Research and Intervention Center for Excellence and the Substance Abuse Training Center in Public Health.

This is a lecture you won’t want to miss. Visit the link here to reserve your spot today. https://ihmc-20221117.eventbrite.com/

Thanks to our lecture sponsors who make this series possible: Duke Energy, the College of Central Florida, Ocala Electric Utilities, Rasmussen University, Ocala Style Magazine, the Ocala Gazette, HDG Hotel Group, and Stella’s Modern Pantry.

We were grateful to host a group of our collaborative partners recently for an in-person update on the progress of a project to improve the health and safety of workers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management. The environmental remediation work these workers do is physically taxing. Our Eva exoskeleton is, we hope, part of the solution to offload some of the physiological stress of this work, and ultimately, improve the quality of life for those who do the work.The Florida International University's Applied Research Center shared this update on the collaboration. Read more here: https://arc.fiu.edu/feature/team-exploring-wearable-robotic-devices-for-em-workforce/

Meet the robot designed to one day step into dangerous situations

The IHMC robotics team is on the move! Next stop, Long Beach, Calif., where we will have a booth at the ANA Avatar XPrize finals. We're also grateful to USA Today for featuring the team's work on the Nadia humanoid robot on their Tech page. Check it out.

Meet the robot designed to one day step into dangerous situations The humanoid robot is being developed by the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and Boardwalk Robotics.

There is still time to reserve your seat at the next IHMC Evening Lecture, set for Nov. 2 at our downtown Pensacola campus. Research Scientist Dr. Gwen Bryan is part of the team investigating the applications of both augmentative and rehabilitative exoskeleton technology by leveraging our expertise in both robotics and human performance. Dr. Bryan will highlight the team’s work developing an augmentative exoskeleton for U.S. Department of Energy workers and a rehabilitative exoskeleton for those with spinal cord injuries. The event is free, but registration is encouraged. Join us and click here. https://www.ihmc.us/lectures/20221102/

Lower-limb exoskeletons have the potential to assist a wide variety of people. They could help people with spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, or multiple sclerosis. They can be used to rehabilitate people with limited mobility or chronic injuries. For people in high-intensity professions, these augmentation devices could reduce the strain felt by laborers, military personnel, or athletes.

IHMC is investigating both augmentative and rehabilitative exoskeleton technology by leveraging our expertise in both robotics and human performance. At the next IHMC Evening Lecture, Dr. Gwen Bryan, research scientist at IHMC, will highlight the team’s work developing an augmentative exoskeleton for U.S. Department of Energy workers and a rehabilitative exoskeleton for those with spinal cord injuries.

Gwen’s lecture is set for Nov. 2 with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and the talk beginning at 6 p.m. The event is free, but registration is encouraged. Join us and click here. https://www.ihmc.us/lectures/20221102/

Science Saturday is almost here. Join us on Oct. 22 and learn to program Sphero Robots with Heath Parr. These fun robots are a great introduction to robotics, and Heath — an Escambia School District teacher and longtime IHMC instructor — is a great teacher. Registration is open for both sessions: One for students in grades 3-4, another for those in grades 5-6. Visit our website to sign up for your session today before they fill up! https://www.ihmc.us/life/science_saturdays/

“Why We Get Sick” author Ben Bikman now live on STEM-Talk

Dr. Ben Bikman is a biomedical scientist at Brigham Young University known for his research into insulin and ketones as key drivers of metabolic function. In the latest episode of STEM-Talk, he talks about how a host of today’s major diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, are linked to insulin resistance. We think you'll enjoy this conversation with the author of "Why We Get Sick." Tune in today where you listen to your podcasts.

“Why We Get Sick” author Ben Bikman now live on STEM-Talk The STEM-Talk interview with the author of “Why We Get Sick” is now available on podcast apps and IHMC’s website. Dr. Ben Bikman is a biomedical scientist

Register today to hear Art DeVany at the next IHMC Evening Lecture. DeVany is a retired economics professor and a member of the Institute of Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California-Irvine. His talk, “On Being a Long-Lived, Lean, Muscular, Fast Twitch Phenotype,” is Oct. 13 at IHMC’s downtown Pensacola campus, 40 S. Alcaniz St. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; the talk begins at 6 p.m.
He will focus on the simple implementation of his healthy, modern Paleo diet and exercise. Register here today -- and join us Thursday evening. https://www.ihmc.us/lectures/20221013/