The Department of Bioengineering‘s Dr. Richard Weir presented to approximately 450 high school students at The Colorado-Wyoming Junior Academy of Science Health Science Seminar at the Anschutz Medical Campus. Many of the students had boarded school buses before dawn to make the five-hour trip to Aurora. But the trip was well worth it. Weir’s presentation not only introduced students to his research in Neural Engineering, Biomechatronics and Rehabilitation, but he also discussed the future of Bioengineering as a whole. The audience seemed fascinated by Weir’s cutting-edge research, asking questions about next steps and anticipated results.
MODEL HAND. University of Colorado research associate professor Richard Weir shows the beginning stages — a computer model — of manufacturing a plastic replica of his own hand.
In subterranean labs at the Anschutz Medical Campus hospitals, a Promethean spark dances inside a $600,000 machine, transforming metal powder into a human appendage.
Local 3-D printer testing machinery could help artificial limb producers solve difficult problems
AURORA | Richard Weir’s new toy takes up an entire room in this basement maze of laboratory space at the Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.
That’s not to say this refurbished 3-D printer belongs to Weir, a research professor in the University of Colorado Denver’s new Department of Bioengineering. The cutting-edge laser metal bonding machine came to the lab thanks to a $600,000 grant from the Veterans Administration, and it’s part of the larger Biomechatronics Development Laboratory that’s home to researchers from CU and the VA.
From left, Jacob Segil, doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering at CU-Boulder; Richard Weir, Ph.D., associate research professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus; Matthew Davidson, doctoral student in Bioengineering CU Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus; and Nili Krausz, graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at CU Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus, stand next to the new 3D metal rapid-prototype machine in the Research Institute Laboratory.
Richard Weir, Ph.D., a leading researcher in robotic technology for arm amputees, said the fabricator will allow his research team to develop better components — created faster and less costly — for prosthetic fingers, hands and arms. Weir, an associate research professor in the Department of Bioengineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science, also envisions creating a prototyping center as a resource for other university and VA researchers.
The Department of Bioengineering‘s Dr. Richard Weir presented to approximately 450 high school students at The Colorado-Wyoming Junior Academy of Science Health Science Seminar at the Anschutz Medical Campus. Many of the students had boarded school buses before dawn to make the five-hour trip to Aurora. But the trip was well worth it. Weir’s presentation not only introduced students to his research in Neural Engineering, Biomechatronics and Rehabilitation, but he also discussed the future of Bioengineering as a whole. The audience seemed fascinated by Weir’s cutting-edge research, asking questions about next steps and anticipated results.
