Former UMass Lowell researcher Erin Rapacki has developed a robotic hand to help people in wheelchairs open doors. Rapacki designed the hand with an eye toward simplicity — it cost less $2,000 to make — but it can open 14 different types of doors.
Rapacki presented the project, which she worked on while at UMass, at the IEEE Robotics Conference in Woburn last week. In July, Rapacki left UMass for Mountain View, Calif.-based Anybots Inc., which is developing telepresence robots.
Marty Meehan
UMass Lowell chancellor Marty Meehan has decided to stay put rather than run for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, according to a statement released by the school this afternoon. Meehan did not rule out the possibility of running for another office at a later time.
Meehan had been talked about as a potential candidate, with many news outlets noting his $5 million campaign war chest. The former democratic congressman from Lowell was named chancellor of UMass Lowell in July 2007.
The ongoing recession recently caused UMass Lowell to put plans for an $80 million Emerging Tech Center on hold, three months after Meehan told MHT the center would be built. The center would have focused on nano- and bio-manufacturing research.
“We’re going to build that building,” Meehan said in December.
New England Tech Stock Index
Rob Day gets a new job, and Excel Venture Management launches a fund in today’s Finance Roundup.
• Rob Day leaves @Ventures, heads to Black Coral Capital
Day, a principal who specialized in cleantech at @Ventures, will be investing in a broadened scope of asset classes at Black Coral. The firm, backed by a private family office, already invests as a limited partner in private equity firms. Day and managing director Christian Zabbal, who works from Montreal, will begin to make the firm’s first direct investments, ranging from early-stage to late-stage and buyout plays.
• NSF funds UMass Lowell engineering outreach effort
The project, called GK-12: Vibes and Waves in Action, connects graduate-level researchers to high-school teachers and students in Lowell and Lawrence. Participating graduate students will discuss their own research, build experiments for the classroom and become mentors and role models to students
• Excel Venture launches $125M life sciences fund
The fund will be used to support companies in the fields of healthcare IT, diagnostics, medical devices and life sciences platforms that touch on energy, defense, agriculture and chemicals.
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