Luke Osborn with the Modular Prosthetic Limb, which enables amputees to sense and react to stimuli. 

Photos of Osborn and Matheny courtesy Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; hand photo courtesy Johns Hopkins University. 

Johnny Matheny

In a video shared by Luke Osborn (B.S.M.E., summa cum laude, ’12), Johnny Matheny, who lost his left arm to cancer, sits down at a piano and, using his prosthetic arm, slowly but surely picks out “Amazing Grace.”

“It’s a really powerful testament not only to how far some of the technology has come, but also the motivation that Johnny has for pushing the boundaries and showing what’s possible,” Osborn said. What’s really amazing here? Matheny went beyond the gold standard of rehabilitation — restoring function — to learn something new. “Johnny didn’t know how to play the piano before his amputation,” Osborn said.

Osborn began tinkering with robotics as an honors mechanical engineering student at the University of Arkansas. He went on to earn a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where his research team pioneered the development of an “e-dermis,” a layered rubber and fabric finger covering equipped with sensors that, applied to prosthetic hands, allows amputees to feel pressure and pain. Now a senior researcher in the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Osborn is helping to lead studies that analyze how Matheny and another amputee are deploying their latest innovation: a state-of-the-art, highly customizable Modular Prosthetic Limb.

The tricky business is connecting the sensory information from residual nerves in the arm to the brain and then back to the prosthetic arm. The researchers began with phantom limb syndrome — the lingering perception that a missing limb is still there — and figured out how to put it to work. “The nerves in the arm still exist, and still go up to the brain,” Osborn said. “What we do is send small electrical pulses to find where the nerves are in the amputated limb.” Working through years of trial and error in the lab, Osborn’s team has managed to locate those “sweet spots” where residual nerves are located. When these nerves are stimulated electrically with sensors, amputees feel as if someone is touching their hand — restoring sensation they thought was lost forever. “You know, it’s a very emotional experience,” Osborn said. “A lot of times it’s a feeling they haven’t felt in a long time. It opens up the question, ‘What else can I feel? Is there a wider range of sensations I can experience?’”

The Modular Prosthetic Limb can help close the loop by linking sensory and motor pathways. Sensors placed on the arm of the amputee measure muscle activity generated by remaining motor nerves. These electrical signals are translated to the prosthetic limb, which sees and interprets them to move in a particular way. Machine learning allows users to tinker and customize the system so that they can navigate tasks of daily life with greater ease.

When asked about remaining challenges, Osborn laughed and joked, “So many! I’ll have a job for a long time.” Making the prosthetic limb comfortable and reliable are critical to ensuring that they are used, but Osborn is most passionate about tackling the highest hurdle. “How can we restore and refine that sense of touch so that you can you feel the difference between a hot cup of coffee and a cold coke from the fridge? Or even different fabric textures?” He hopes that continued exploration of the e-dermis and high-tech prosthetic devices will lead to new breakthroughs.

Osborn credits his training at the U of A to “teaching me how to think like an engineer … to think about a problem critically, and how to go about solving it.” He worked with professor Min Zou on his honors thesis, which focused “on surface engineering, trying to add bumps and tiny features on the nano scale to surfaces to reduce friction and wear,” he recalled. That work led to his first two publications and helped him recognize “the excitement and value and joy that comes from trying to answer questions that nobody has been able to solve yet.”

Osborn’s innovations have attracted international attention. He was selected by Forbes as one of “30 Under 30 in Science” and his discoveries have been written up in Wired, The Atlantic and World Economic Forum, among others. Most recently, the e-dermis material that he helped to develop was pictured in National Geographic’s June 2022 cover story, “The Power of Touch.” Although his days in the lab stretch long, he’s made time to mentor 29 undergraduates and interns, and offers this advice to current students.

“Research has taught me it’s okay to mess up. The reality is that there’s hundreds of iterations of a process before you get it right.”

Antoinette Grajeda documents a farm tour led by Larry Galligan. These recordings will be used in Arkansas PBS’ first podcast, The Growing Season.

Photos: Chieko Hara

Antoinette Grajeda leads a panel at the SoulCon conference, organized to provide a forum for media professionals of color.

Master gardeners from around the state are gathering at Larry Galligan’s farm in West Fork, and honors alumna Antoinette Grajeda (B.A., journalism and Spanish, magna cum laude, ’08; M.A., journalism, ’16) is there, shotgun mic in hand, to document the tour for a new podcast project. It’s a tough day for Galligan, who is low on water thanks to a pump giving out. “Last time I was here, you had too much water,” Grajeda says, and Galligan responds, “Well you know, we’ll just deal with it.” So it goes in the life of a farmer, and to some extent, in the turbulent field of journalism, a career path that Grajeda fell into by accident. “I came to the UA with a lot of AP credits from high school and had no clue what I wanted to do.” Like many honors students, her interests were wide-ranging, but her prowess as a writer prompted her advisor to suggest that she try journalism. 

“Suddenly I was in a space where I didn’t know anything; I felt very behind,” she recalled. But thanks to some nudges from journalism professor Gerald Jordan, Grajeda started writing for The Traveler, The Razorback yearbook and soon expanded into broadcast media at KXUA and then UATV, where she initially worked behind the scenes. When friends decided to launch a Spanish-language broadcast Grajeda agreed to help with scripts and editing, not feeling comfortable speaking Spanish live on air. But “the first day, somebody didn’t show up, … so they threw me out there. I was like, as long as I can read the prompter, it’s fine. I ended up doing it in two languages.”

Grajeda’s can-do attitude and commitment to inclusive communications in all formats have propelled her career. She parlayed a student internship into jobs in local media, initially in print at The Morning News, where she was among the many laid off in 2009, when newspapers contracted dramatically. Fortunately, she was able to pivot to local NPR affiliate KUAF, where she had been working part-time to translate interviews recorded for the paper into content for the Ozarks at Large news program, simultaneously developing content for the paper’s website. 

“They were testing the idea of making Ozarks at Large a daily show and experimenting with HD channels — I cut my teeth on that,” Grajeda recalled. Over the next 12 years, she worked her way up through the ranks at the station, creating content that ranged from live radio kickoffs for the Fayetteville Roots Festival, cohosted with Kyle Kellams, to an annual Christmas show that she produced on her own, with bands performing their favorite holiday songs, interviews, stories and special guests. “So one year I got to interview Santa Claus,” she said with a laugh. “I remember hearing shows on the radio when I was a kid, when they would read A Christmas Carol or something … so that felt like my gift to the community.” Grajeda’s multimedia experience ultimately led to an exciting opportunity in 2020, when she was selected to be editor-in-chief of Arkansas Soul, a digital media platform geared towards people of color.

“I like new challenges, I like new projects,” she said. “And I think one of the things that I had definitely clued into was just the importance of highlighting people who are often invisible.”

Arkansas Soul gave Grajeda the chance to cover communities of color fully with the robust documentation that’s too often confined to the dominant culture at most news organizations. “With marginalized communities, oftentimes, it’s just when there’s a tragedy or a policy conflict or something,” she said, citing 2020 coverage of the Marshallese community’s high death rate from COVID-19. “And to me, that’s not equitable, because you’re not covering all of the facets.” 

Despite the pandemic shutdown, Grajeda managed to launch a roundtable podcast that explored critical topics during tough times, from #BlackLivesMatter to representation in politics. Grajeda has long been involved in mentoring young journalists and helped to organize the SoulCon conference last spring to provide a forum for media professionals of color. One week after that conference, upon return from a much-needed break, she was laid off from Arkansas Soul due to funding issues. Although it was a gut punch, Grajeda said, “What’s been so humbling, shocking and gratifying is how many people have reached out. … You have your people, your community to support you when times get hard.” 

Ever resilient, Grajeda’s on to the next thing — she’s helping Arkansas PBS launch its first podcast, The Growing Season, which documents the lives of farmers across the state. In August, Grajeda announced that she had been hired as a senior reporter at Arkansas Advocate, a new independent, nonpartisan newsroom where she covers race and equity, immigration, education, health and economic development.  “Things work out how they’re supposed to, and you end up where you’re supposed to be. It’s never a direct path — never never!”

Ayo Yusuf, Photo by Virginie Blachère.

Ayo Yusuf (B.Arch., cum laude ’06) is grateful to experience success in a challenging profession. He’s concluding his three-year term on the board of directors of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANY) and currently works in New York City as a senior associate at Perkins Eastman, a prominent global design firm. Ayo (who prefers to be called by his first name) has been an integral part of the senior leadership and management team leading the 40-year-old firm’s largest project to date: concurrent development of the master plan and building designs for an international academic medical center complex, with a 700-bed teaching hospital, research center and five different colleges — representing 3.9 million square feet of development. But the project, planned to take place in eight phases over 3½ years, is currently churning through phase three after three years of work. 

“In a relatively young career, this has been a great project, but it’s revealed several fracture lines in the profession, at least for me,” Ayo noted. He’s concerned about the role that architects themselves play in the prevailing undervaluing of architectural services: “We’re contracted to develop three concept designs but end up coming up with 43 on the way to three. We’re not getting paid for 43. Not only does this have a ripple effect on morale, especially for younger team members, it also sends the wrong message to our clients about the value of our time and efforts.”

Ayo brings this passion for improvement to the AIANY Board, where he advocates for different voices and points out perennial problems to address. He was selected to serve on the steering committee for the organization’s inaugural Political Action Fund, which promotes the need for architects to engage in design diplomacy. To ensure that architecture, planning and design are a priority for elected officials, he and his fellow steering committee members surveyed politicians running for office on issues such as affordable housing, sustainability, transportation and safety. They published the various positions as an educational tool and public service to the AIANY membership.

“As architects, we’re problem solvers,” he said. “We shouldn’t wait for people to come up with a vision for us to execute — we should be more proactive to design the vision.”

Ayo ascribes his gift for multilayered scenario planning to his childhood chess-playing days and has recently become intrigued by a relatively new field: foresight strategy/futures thinking. “Certain places, like the Googles of the world, build this practice into their culture,” he remarked. “There are places that build a team and insert a devil’s advocate — whose role is to constructively make the team aware of the blind spots that may exist in their plans. Those who ask, ‘What happens if we got our assumptions wrong?’ are increasingly valued,” in fields ranging from engineering to government policy work. 

Time will tell where Ayo’s career takes him, but he credits his parents and his time at the U of A with setting him on the path to success. “Imagine coming from Lagos, Nigeria, to Fayetteville, Arkansas. I spoke with quite an accent. I would ask questions in my classes, even though people didn’t understand everything I said,” he recalled. “It was important for me to present myself authentically, and that builds confidence.” 

Part of the first honors program cohort from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, Ayo recalls his mettle-testing final year at the U of A, simultaneously working on his honors thesis, juggling a demanding capstone studio and applying to graduate schools. He asked Marlon Blackwell, Distinguished Professor of Architecture, for a letter of recommendation, “and Marlon said, ‘Are you serious? Comp studio is so involved — you won’t have time!’” Blackwell eventually appreciated Ayo’s determination and subsequently wrote that letter, which Ayo credits for his acceptance to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, where he completed a master’s degree in urban design. 

Before Ayo left for Cambridge, he remembers Blackwell commending him for developing a brilliant idea for the capstone studio project on his first try and then revealing why he’d asked Ayo to explore other options. “Marlon wanted to see how much conviction I had for my original idea,” he recalled. “His parting message for me was to trust my instincts, that I have very good instincts.” Those are words Ayo lives by and hopes to pass on to others: “To be successful on a project you must have faith in yourself — moxie! Determine what’s important to you and stick with it.” 

Concept diagrams and physical model illustrating the organizing principles for Rutgers University Honors Living Learning Community. Image courtesy Perkins Eastman.