Biomedical Engineer and MDRI PhD Candidate Thomas Beltrame recently returned to Flinders University at Tonsley following his first opportunity to present his research at an international conference, the 13th World Congress of Neurorehabilitation (WCNR), in Vancouver, Canada.
Thomas’ research explores the intersection between neurorehabilitation, music therapy and virtual reality; at WCNR, he shared the preliminary findings of his co-design and his VR prototype for interested delegates to trial.
Directly following WCNR, Thomas represented the engineering voice amongst a room of ~30 world leaders in stroke research at the 1st International Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery Alliance Think Tank, also held in Vancouver.
Thomas then explored the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Alberta on his way to Ontario to deliver research presentations at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the University of Toronto, both in Toronto, and McMaster University, in Hamilton.
A major highlight of Toronto was visiting the KITE Labs, featuring their world class WinterLab, FallsLab, DriverLab, and HomeLab, demonstrating significant engineering achievement to build such specialising facilities, with enormous research potential.
The final leg of the journey was spent in Montréal, where Thomas swapped the PhD for Poutine, focus groups for French, meetings for mountain ranges, grading for the Grand Prix, methods for maple syrup, and biasing for BeaverTails.
If anyone would like to chat to Thomas about his research, test out his VR prototype, ask him for Canadian recommendations, or check out the extended photo reel, he’d love to hear from you at thomas.beltrame@flinders.edu.au
