Beyond the Basics

Student Teams Build and Program Robotic Prosthetic Arms in Pilot BME Class

The Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) launches spring semester 2026 with an innovative new pilot course on AI and robotics taught by Associate Professor Adam Gormley.

Convinced that AI and robotics are arguably two of the most important topics in engineering at the moment, Gormley was inspired to develop a course that unites the two fields to give students a hands-on learning experience that challenges them to build prosthetic robotic arms ultimately able to communicate with natural language with the help of AI. 

"Tinkering is the best way for students to learn, and this course is an opportunity to give students an immersive, physical course. I don't lecture at all—but have created an environment where they are teaching themselves."

The lab-based, experiential learning class provides students with a 3D printer to print plastic parts, along with motors, electronics, and a variety of bearings, screws, and other materials needed to assemble their prosthetic arms. 

While Gormley did create an example himself, which is displayed in the classroom as an inspiration, he has charged each of the class's four teams of five to build their own version that can be programmed to pick up and drop off things with the little grippers on its end using machine vision and natural language prompts.

On the Cutting Edge of Innovation

It is this interdisciplinary aspect that drew senior BME and computer science double major Maria Pineiro Goncalves to the course. "The focus of prosthetics, AI, and robotics really called out to me," she says. "It's very hands-on, as my team will design, 3D-print, and build our own robotic arm with natural language interfaces and machine vision. It's also an amazing opportunity to practice computer-aided design, or CAD, and hardware development."

Pineiro Goncalves, who hopes to pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering, adds, that "as president of Rutgers e-Nable—a student organization that 3D prints prosthetics—I have experience with mechanical 3D-printed arms. The course's incorporation of motors and AI is an exciting new step for me."

Her all-women team is using Gormley's base as part of their own design, although they will be "changing the upper part of the arm by adding an extra claw to the end effector and simplifying the arm design to make it a lighter load for the motor," she reports. 

But what Pineiro Goncalves is most enthusiastic about is the AI and natural language interface. "It's an exciting challenge that will make the robotic arm more accessible to a wide array of people," she explains. "I believe the project is on the cutting-edge of current innovation. By automating the arm, more control is granted to the wearer—and thanks to machine vision and a natural language interface that won't require coding, the barrier to using the prosthetic is drastically lowered."

Gormley readily admits that he has "great goals and aspirations" for the course and is looking forward to the teams' competition at the end of the semester. "Since it is a pilot course, I will be able to calibrate my expectations, see how to improve upon it and perhaps rescale it to accommodate more than 20 students to provide an opportunity to any student across the university who wants to make a more meaningful impact."