How to Train Your (Bionic) Body Parts

Humans rely on a range of tools and technologies as we boldly go out to explore the unknown. Some of those tools even become part of our bodies as we attach advanced devices to our tissue, our bones, our muscles and our nerves. But how do we get the most out of our newly augmented selves? In this talk, bionic limb researcher and artificial intelligence expert Dr. Patrick Pilarski will walk you through what it means to have robots and other devices tightly coupled to the human body. He’ll discuss examples of how humans work and grow alongside bionic devices, and how we can train them to improve over time using machine learning. To help think on what a human body might need to look like and act like to go into the depths of the ocean or the dark spaces beyond the stars, Dr. Pilarski will showcase some of the research being conducted at the University of Alberta and the Alberta Machine intelligence Institute on next-generation artificial hands, wearable third-arms, robotic exoskeletons, telescoping limbs, prosthetic falcons, and more!