Engineering Faculty students develop an electronic chip that helps treat paralysis 

With the aim of helping people who have lost the ability to move and who suffer from paralysis of the limbs as a result of being exposed to accidents, students in the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at the University of Damascus developed an electronic chip to deliver signals and nerve impulses in the damaged spinal cord.

The students, Batoul Hamdan, Doaa Mustafa, Ahmed Ali and Ibrahim Yassin, noted in an interview with SANA reporter that this chip, which is implanted in the damaged spinal cord, forms a crossing bridge to connect nerve signals coming from the brain to the muscles and limbs, as the chip receives the brain’s commands through the nerves connected to it in a medically studied manner and processes brain signals and sends them to the connected body part.

Regarding the advantages offered by the design, the students pointed out that it is characterized by high speed, as the process is completed in fractions of a second, and it also generates a signal similar to the brain signal that is received by the nerves to move the muscles, which allows the people who suffer from paralysis to restore the motor functions.

Regarding the difficulties that faced the students’ work, they pointed out that they were represented by the high financial cost of the project, the inability to implement it using tools that are compatible with the human body, in addition to the limited capabilities in obtaining medical devices such as an EEG device.

Amin, Advanced Communications Engineering Professor in the Department of Electronics and Communications, said that the chip designed by the students is similar to what exists abroad, using experimental materials to obtain the same results, due to the high costs of manufacturing with original materials that suit the nature of the human body. She underlined the necessity of providing support for students to be able to complete the manufacturing of the chip so that it is ready for use.

Dr. Amin highlighted the importance of having such chips as they are a new and advanced idea, and producing them locally could contribute to saving the process of importing them and to helping affected people.

Inas Abdulkareem