Every summer, the Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC) offers UIUC undergraduates the opportunity to apply for a Jump ARCHES summer internship. Students are paired with a PI who has received funding through Jump ARCHES and assist them with their work. Not only are students introduced to innovative projects in the healthcare engineering space, they also are able to perform hands on research as necessary. Seven interns were picked for this summer, including computer science student Zeyang Zhang. Zhang worked with Dusan Stipanovic, professor in Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering. 

What project are you working on, who are you working with, and what is something you have learned so far from said project?

I’m working on AI-based Virtual Therapists for Stoke Rehabilitation. My PI is Prof. Dušan Stipanović. I learned the whole process starting from recording data all the way to using machine learning models, such as LSTM, to making accurate predictions. I built LSTM models to accurately predict therapist’s trajectory and assistance level for stroke patients with the aim of providing an appropriate assistance force later. Eventually, I incorporated machine learning models within a Unity project environment, ensuring accurate real-time predictions with minimal latency.

What has been your favorite part of your internship experience so far?

My favorite part was the time that I could interact with the AI-based virtual therapist I built. I spent 7 weeks on recording data, building and testing models, training models, incorporating the models into Unity environments, and making a demo game in Unity to eventually show that I can connect a robot (working as a patient) with my AI-based virtual therapist. I was so excited that my virtual therapist did a great job of helping the robot to move and follow a particular trajectory. At this time, I think all of my hard work is worth the time. 

Why has the Jump ARCHES Summer Internship been important to you?

I learned more about machine learning and researching. I learned how to cooperate with other students and my mentors well. I think this research experience can prepare me well for my future graduate studies 

How do you hope to use the knowledge that you have gained from this experience in your future endeavors?

I think that I will be more confident to do research and apply machine learning techniques to solve problems or build products in the future. I hope that in the future, I have more opportunities to use the machine learning knowledge I learned here to solve more complex problems.