Daniel P. Ferris, Ph.D.

Captain of her high school tennis team and a four-year veteran of varsity tennis in college, Amanda Studnicki had been training for this moment for years.

All she had to do now was think small. Like ping pong small.

For weeks, Studnicki, a graduate student at the University of Florida, served and rallied against dozens of players on a table tennis court. Her opponents sported a science-fiction visage, a cap of electrodes streaming off their heads into a backpack as they played against either Studnicki or a ball-serving machine. That cyborg look was vital to Studnicki’s goal: to understand how our brains react to the intense demands of a high-speed sport like table tennis – and what difference a machine opponent makes… Continue reading.

Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Ferris, Robert W. Adenbaum Professor and senior associate chair, who has been invited to serve as a standing member of the Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Sciences [MRS] study section for the NIH Center for Scientific Review.

The MRS study section evaluates applications related to the biomechanics and therapeutics of impaired physical function, including exercise, physical rehabilitation, and physical manipulation approaches to the musculoskeletal system. The study section primarily reviews studies on human subjects.

Members are selected by their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors.

Humans possess the ability to walk in a variety of situations – from navigating through crowds to traversing tightropes. However, due to limitations in brain imaging technology, the inner workings of the brain during adaptation of walking patterns have largely remained a mystery.

“You walk in different ways all the time. You deal with terrain, you deal with speed, you deal with dodging other people…but we don’t know how your brain manages it,” said Dr. Daniel Ferris, Robert W. Adenbaum Professor & senior associate chair of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida.

The National Institutes of Health has recently awarded Ferris $2 million to investigate how the human brain controls locomotor adaptation under varying conditions. Information gained from this study could aid in developing new methods of diagnosis and treatment for gait disabilities… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Daniel P. Ferris, Ph.D., Professor, School of Kinesiology and Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Ferris was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows For his outstanding contributions to understanding the biomechanics and neural control of locomotion, and development of clinically impactful rehabilitation technologies..