Alison K. – Cleveland, Summer 2018

“As a research assistant at Tel Aviv University’s Movement Science Lab I have learned so much this summer. I began by 3-D printing robots and programming sensors on them. They were given to a nearby children’s hospital. The goal of these robots is to make rehabilitative treatments more fun and desirable for kids and to encourage them to participate in therapy outside of their allotted time with the physical/occupational therapists each day. Throughout the summer I have also set up a pendulum experiment and tested Chevreul’s theory on students at the university to prove auto-suggestion, which states that the human body reacts subconsciously to imagined situations. Meeting students at the university through this experiment has been one of the best aspects of my internship! In the last week, I have also been assisting in research at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, Israel’s largest hospital. There we have been running several experiments on Parkinson’s patients to measure tremors during different activities that require motor stability. I cannot believe we only have 2 weeks left in Israel, and cannot wait to see what else these last few weeks have in store!”