Peter Kyberd is an academic specialising in

engineering cybernetics Engineering cybernetics also known as technical cybernetics or cybernetic engineering, is the branch of cybernetics concerned with applications in engineering, in fields such as control engineering and robotics. History Qian Xuesen (Hsue-Shen Tsie ...

. He is currently head of the School of Energy and Electronic Engineering at

Portsmouth University The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...

and serves on the editorial board of the ''Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics''. His main research activity has been the practical application of technology to rehabilitation and engineering in

Orthopaedics Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

Education

Kyberd has a first class degree from Durham University ( Hatfield College), where he completed the science stream of the General Studies course and graduated in 1982. He then earned a MSc in Electronic Engineering from

Southampton University , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

, followed by a PhD from the same institution for work on the digital control of a multifunction prosthetic hand.

Career

After spending the previous decade working at the Oxford Orthopaedic Engineering Centre (part of the

Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) is an internationally renowned orthopaedic hospital, with strong affiliations to the University of Oxford. It provides routine and specialist orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery and rheumatology services t ...

), Kyberd lectured in the Cybernetics Department of

Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, where he was part of the team that performed the first implant of a bi-directional nerve sensor on a healthy human being. In 2003 he took up the Canada Research Chair in Rehabilitation Cybernetics at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, where I conducted research in the clinical application of intelligent prosthetic arms, energy storage and return in prosthetic ankles and was part of the Upper Limb Prosthetics Outcome Measures Group (ULPOM), promoting the use of validated and standardised tools of prosthetic assessment. In 2015 he joined the

University of Greenwich , mottoeng = "To learn, to do, to achieve" , former_name = Woolwich Polytechnic(1890–1970)Thames Polytechnic(1970–1992) , established = , type = Public university , budget = £214.9 million (2020) , administrative_staff = , chancel ...

to serve as head of the Engineering and Science Department, before moving on to Portsmouth in November 2018. One early innovation was the use of sensitive

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

s to detect when an object gripped by a prosthetic hand was slipping. Using this, he was able to design a hand which could pick up a raw egg without breaking it. He has also focused on duplicating the complex axes of movement of the hand, particularly the thumb.''Design and development of a dextrous manipulator''
Harris M, Kyberd P, Harwin W S, Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control, Vol. 27, No. 2, 137-152 (2005)

References

External links

A Poulton, P J Kyberd, D Gow, Universal Access and Assistive Technology, Springer, , 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kyberd, Peter Living people Canadian engineers Year of birth missing (living people) Academics of the University of Portsmouth Cyberneticists Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham Alumni of the University of Southampton