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Stroke rehab device speeds up motor skills recovery

fixes can be conducted. Moreover, it’ll be a centralized location for OIT to house the student loaner program and distribute the electronic devices that students need, and it’s also going to have a small area running video for OIT training and outreach.

Naqvi Khan, a computer science senior who works for OIT, highlighted the outreach advantages of the new space.

“I feel like this is one of the prime locations on campus for a walk-up,” Khan said. “Students are always passing by, which gives them a lot more awareness to our service existing for them when they need it. And the dedicated space of the bar itself gets us a lot of exposure, which makes it a good spot for OIT to cater to specific technology needs of the different campus populations.”

The initial vision for the Tech Bar project was conceived by Shannon Cepica, a direct report of Feagans’s.

“Shannon—who unfortunately passed away last summer—was really the vision for this project,” Feagans said. “It started about three years ago, and he kept building up interest and momentum for the project, and then he shared that vision with Pulin Bhatt, who kept the energy going. Then, Dr. Fitch got involved, he saw the need, and he provided us the space in the Student Union to put it in.”

The key to making the whole project come together, however, was Shannon’s conversations with Student Government and the student body. Feagans said he broached the idea with them early on, and students were immediately on board, even beginning to lobby for this to reach fruition. This, in turn, caught the attention of Student Affairs, from which point Fitch brought the idea to several other student groups, who ultimately came up with the name for it. While the pandemic slowed the rollout of this space, UTD’s commitment to the Tech Bar project never wavered.

“We were well underway to deliver it last year, and then COVID hit, so the

Complication with repairs leaves UV buildings 44, 45 waterless for 30 hours

or shower was terrible,” Curtis said. “You want to be able to just use the bathroom whenever you want, without having to think about needing to run around and find a working toilet. Also, I had an oral exam that was in-person with my professor, one-on-one this morning, and because we didn’t have water, I hadn’t showered, which was not a great look.” project stalled for a little while – but we never gave up the dollars,” Feagans said.

“Even with all the budget cuts, we made sure to keep that project alive because we knew how important it was to the students from the feedback we got.”

As learning returns to campus, demand for the Tech Bar’s services is expected to increase substantially. But enthusiasm about the Tech Bar isn’t coming just from those in need of its support. As Khan put it, “We’re also super excited to have this space. We’ve all been studying and working remotely for the past year and a half, so it’s great to be able to finally interact with people again and help them out face-to-face.”

Implanted electrotherapy device musters FDA approval after two years

UTD researchers received FDA approval for their stroke rehabilitation device, bringing eight years of research by over 500 students and faculty to fruition.

In 2013, the UTD Texas Biomedical Device Center set out to create a device that would increase the stroke recovery rate. At the time, PhD students Ben Porter and Navid Khodaparast demonstrated that it was possible to increase the recovery rate from stroke in rats. In 2016, a team led by Seth Hays, Robert Rennaker and Michael Kilgard conducted the first human trial for this innovation and by 2021, phase three clinical trials were published in the medical journal “The Lancet.” The team’s most recent achievement was the FDA approval of the Vivistim paired VNS System, a device that uses vagus nerve stimulation to improve motor recovery for stroke patients.

44 and 45 until after 6 p.m. the next day—turned off at approximately 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29. But Andrew Lujan, on the scene of the repair in the parking lot behind Phase 6, gave one plausible explanation.

“We’re guessing tree roots, but we’re not completely sure,” Lujan said. “But, I was working in building 18 the other day, and it’s pretty much the same stuff: it’s just an old building. A lot of the problems you get are just that when a building is 30 years old, you start to run into some wear.”

One building 45 resident, international political economy sophomore Kara Curtis, noted how much people take guaranteed plumbing for granted.

“Not being able to use my own toilet

The explanation for the water shortage’s extended duration comes down to the fact that the system actually had to be repaired twice.

“There’s one leak that we [had] already fixed,” Lujan said, “and another one that we didn’t find until we turned the water back on … at 1 a.m. in the morning. Tailend of an 18-hour shift, you fix one leak, turn it on, and something else shows up. At that point, the plumbing supply house was closed—they’re open like 9-5—so it became a whole new issue.”

Repair crews returned the next day to fix the second leak, a process nearly as lengthy as the first. Meanwhile, ATEC junior Sigrid Rittby—another Comet living in building 45—reported concern for the lack of alternatives provided to residents during the water outage, especially for students potentially under a mandatory quarantine.

“I was lucky to have a ton of water in my apartment in jugs. So, I was able to drink that, although trying to use the

A recent reimplementation of the “no water bottles” policy in DHW is intended to address the issues of cross-contamination and the use of the Dining Hall as a to-go facility.

Students might bring their water bottles into DHW when getting a meal right after class, wanting to refill their bottles with cold drinks to cool off from the Texas heat. However, to comply with university social distancing guidelines, Dining Services has replaced the convenience of allowing reusable water bottles in DHW with practices that are intended to keep students and faculty safe. These practices include the installation of a cubby station at the entrance where diners are required to leave their water bottles.

Pam Stanley, director of Food and Retail Services, said, “the pricing structure and facility is not set up to be a grab and go, so water bottles were never really supposed to be in the Dining Hall. We did notice this semester a little bit of an uptick in people bringing the bottles in, so we did set up some cubbies.”

The “no water bottles” policy has been in place since at least 2018, but the recent stricter enforcement of this practice is a result of the rapid spread of COVID-19.

“We wanted to stress this because we were noticing that the water bottles that were being brought in were used to fill up at the fountain, and people were touching the bottle part where your mouth goes on the bottle – they were touching it to the actual fountain machine. So, we wanted to follow the University’s request to mitigate any crosscontamination everywhere we can,” Stanley said.

Dining Services has posted several signs in DHW to make sure that students follow this water bottle policy. They have also started to discourage the practice of using the same cup to refill drinks at the fountains in light of the

"I don't like it. One, it's because of COVID, and two, I don't want to have to wake up an hour before my class."

Connor Sullivan Mechanical Engineering Sophomore

"I learn better in person. Over COVID, I did not learn well online ... I'm comfortable with going to class in person. But I understand that a lot of people aren't comfortable with it. They are higher risk, and have differences in circumstances."

Kyle Glover Finance Senior

"It's kind of scary because there's a lot of people, but I also learn better in person so I'm conflicted on it. I have the vaccine, so hopefully I'll be safe."

Samita Virani Biochemistry Freshman

pandemic.

Carolyn Rutter, director of Dining Services, said, “we've seen crazy things like somebody even washing their hands in the beverage station. So, it's really just for students and faculty, staff, for everybody’s safety that we put these practices in place.”

According to Dining Services, students have been compliant with the practice so far.

Everyone seems to understand the need for safer dining options, especially with the conclusion of de-densification, where students and faculty will be exposed to more people at once.

Nicholas Norris, resident district manager of Chartwells Dining Services (the dining services company that UTD partners with), reiterated the University’s focus on health and safety.

“This is all about safety and sanitation, and we just wanted to take another step to try to enhance what we were already doing,” Norris said. “Again, this practice has been in place for a while. But we felt like we needed to take another step given the environment we are in right now to enhance that practice, and that’s why we ended up having all the students leave their water bottles at the front.”