KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 12, 2019 — Not many people have the opportunity to mingle with astronauts. But when you work in a lab that is dedicated to human spaceflight, such opportunities occur.<\/p>\n
Rachel Bellisle, who graduated summa cum laude from the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biomedical engineering program in 2018, is conducting research in bioastronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).<\/p>\n
While pursuing a doctorate in medical engineering and medical physics through the MIT-Harvard Health Sciences and Technology Program, Bellisle is also working in MIT\u2019s Human Systems Laboratory, located in the university\u2019s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.<\/p>\n
Bellisle\u2019s most recent lab work has been under the direction of MIT Assistant Professor Leia Stirling.<\/p>\n
\u201cRachel is motivated by space applications and appreciates that the science and engineering that enables people to leave the planet and also has terrestrial applications to solve problems on Earth,\u201d said Stirling.<\/p>\n
One of Bellisle\u2019s accomplishments this semester was developing an algorithm that uses inertial measurement units to estimate body posture. The algorithm is now being implemented in three separate projects by the research team in the lab.<\/p>\n
This summer, the Exeter<\/strong> native hopes to work on a gravity loading countermeasure suit that prevents bone loss in astronauts in microgravity and potentially has therapeutic applications for individuals with cerebral palsy on Earth.<\/p>\n Bellisle\u2019s faculty research advisor is Dava Newman, who is a former deputy administrator of NASA. Newman\u2019s research areas include spacesuits and space physiology.<\/p>\n MIT\u2019s legacy in spaceflight was on full display at the Apollo 50+50 event, a day-long symposium held on March 13 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing and to envision the next 50 years of human space exploration.<\/p>\n Bellisle attended the event, at which 15 MIT alumni who are active or retired astronauts were present.<\/p>\n \u201cThe event emphasized the huge part MIT has played in the history of spaceflight,\u201d Bellisle said. \u201cIt was a humbling experience to once again be reminded how lucky I am to be in a place with such a legacy and to be among people who are giants in their field today.\u201d<\/p>\n Bellisle credits her experience at 溏心vlog免费B站 with preparing her for her studies at MIT.<\/p>\n \u201cMy involvement in the engineering community and professional engineering organizations at 溏心vlog免费B站 were vital to developing the ‘soft’ skills I needed to be successful,\u201d stated Bellisle. \u201cI also had the opportunity to attend conferences, which enabled me to make connections for internships, graduate programs and fellowships.\u201d<\/p>\n Bellisle honed her research skills at 溏心vlog免费B站 while working in Professor Walter Besio\u2019s Neuro Rehabilitation Lab and Assistant Professor Kunal Mankodiya\u2019s Wearable Biosensing Lab.<\/p>\n \u201cRachel was one of the brightest biomedical engineering students I\u2019ve had the honor to advise,\u201d said Mankodiya. \u201cShe worked diligently on a complex research project that involved body motion capture and brain monitoring. She quickly mastered her research skills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 12, 2019 — Not many people have the opportunity to mingle with astronauts. But when you work in a lab that is dedicated to human spaceflight, such opportunities occur. Rachel Bellisle, who graduated summa cum laude from the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biomedical engineering program in 2018, is conducting research in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-74718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}