Dr Manuela Paulina Trejo Ramirez

Manuela has a BSc in Mechatronics engineering from the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Leon in Mexico. After graduation she obtained a DAAD Scholarship for her Masters studies in Biomedical Engineering in Germany at the University of Lubeck. Manuela spent one year working as an intern and Master Thesis student at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Cologne. Her project 'Improvement, completion and verification of an artificial muscle biomechanical rack (AMBR)' was aimed to build a test rig to deepen the understanding of the muscle-bone mechanics of the lower leg with the objective of reducing the effects of microgravity in astronauts' bones, preventing and counteracting osteoporosis.

Prior to her PhD, Manuela worked as a lecturer at the Tecnologico de Monterrey at the Engineering and Sciences Division, teaching a wide range of lectures from basic sciences to specialized topics in Mechatronics. She oriented her work to education innovation for engineers, social service and impact of students of Mechatronics and collaborating in the development of community projects involving patients with muscular dystrophy and people in need of upper-limb prosthetics. The most important accomplishments were the foundation of the student-led group Robomedic which provides low-cost 3D-printed hand prostheses, as well as being named honorary youth member of the Academy of Engineering in Mexico.

Manuela obtained her PhD at Sheffield Hallam University with a project investigating the biomechanical effects of football shoes on the ankle joint, focusing primarily on preventing injuries and enhancing players' performance.

She worked previously as a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, working on the EPSRC funded project "A sensorimotor PROsthesis for the upper LIMB (PROLIMB)". The project aims to model, design, fabricate and validate an affordable body-powered prosthetic fingertip digit with integrated mechanical haptic feedback.

Research interests

• Prosthetics
• Biomechanics, injury aetiology and movement signature analysis
• Sports engineering
• Additive manufacturing applications to healthcare
• Embedded systems and wearables
• TinyML
• Assistive technologies for people with disabilities
• Scientific entrepreneurship
• Education innovation, Challenge Based Learning

Embedded Systems for Condition Monitoring and Control
Systems Engineering

 

LinkedIn

 

 

● 3rd place in the academic poster competition. Arsenal FC Sports and Exercise Medicine and Science
(SEMS) Conference. Emirates Stadium, London
● Student research grant – International Society of Biomechanics in Sports (ISBS). €484 fund Designed to
assist the student in the early stages of their professional development to encourage the pursuit of
biomechanics research. – 2019
● Student Engagement Award – International Sports Engineering Association (ISEA), €500 fund to
support PhD research activities – 2019.
● Vice-Chancellor Scholarship for Doctoral Studies – Sheffield Hallam University – 2017
● Special award "Professor TEC21" for the use of technologies to enhance student experience – ITESM
Campus León – 2017
● Honorary Member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering (AIM). Selected to take part in the mentoring
program of young engineers in México and impulse their careers and their impact in specific areas. I took
part in the health and innovation mentoring group, promoting education initiatives improving the lives
of people with disabilities.
● Novus grant for education Innovation – Recipient of funding to create the
creation of the Health Innovation Maker Lab (HIML). ITESM University – 2015
● Scholarship for master’s studies in Germany– From México's National Council for Science and
Technology CONACYT and the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD – 2012

Trejo Ramirez, M. P., Evans, N., & Chappell, M. “Restoring the sense of touch: Development of a low cost,
wearable and customizable haptic feedback system for prostheses”. Presented as an oral presentation
at the CDT Prosthetics and Orthotics Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow UK. November 2023.

Trejo Ramirez, M. P., Evans, M., Hardwicke, J., & Chappell, M. “The Warwick marker set for finger
kinematic evaluation during activities of daily life”. Poster presented at the BioMedEng22 conference in
London, UK.

Trejo Ramirez, M. P., Evans, M., Hardwicke, J., & Chappell, M. “Evaluation of gender differences in hand
grasp and motion kinematics for finger prosthetic design, a pilot study” ISPO 19th World Congress. The
Art and the Science. Prosthetics and Orthotics International. 47:170, April 2023.

Trejo Ramirez, M., Potts, J., & Nortcliffe, A. “The research methodology to investigate the long-tail
learning effect on alumni from a large team project”. In International Symposium of Engineering
Education (ISEE) Conference Proceedings. UCL Centre for Engineering Education. 2018.

Presenter at the Inaugural Spring Colloquium of the UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research
(EER) Network at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne. The UK. Peer-reviewed Abstract,
"The research methodology approach, being used to researching the long-tail learning effect." 2018.

Presenter at the CIIE (Congreso Internacional de Innovación Educativa) in Monterrey, México. Panel:
"Engineers Transforming society". 2017

Ramírez, M. P. T., Sotelo, H. A., & Ramírez, J. M. L. Development of key professional skills through
biomedical social projects with engineering students. In VentureWell. Proceedings of Open, the Annual
Conference (p. 1). National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance. 2016.

Kriechbaumer, A., Ramírez, M. T., Mittag, U., Itskov, M., Ramírez, J. L., & Rittweger, J. “Design,
Development and Validation of an Artificial Muscle Biomechanical Rig (AMBR) for Finite Element Model
Validation”. In Emerging Challenges for Experimental Mechanics in Energy and Environmental
Applications, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Experimental Mechanics and 9th
Symposium on Optics in Industry (ISEM-SOI), 2015 (pp. 319-327). Springer International Publishing,
2017.

Organised and presented a panel titled "Youth as the catalyst of their development" in the Interactive
Global Forum of the World Youth Conference México. The WYC hosted talks and panels to open
discussion and analysis of the role of youth in accomplishing the Millennium Development Goals. 2010.

 

Interview about prosthetics work