A Helping Hand

A team from Wits University are developing a prosthetic robotic hand sensitive enough to pick up a marble – and they’re making sure it’s affordable too

- Nadim Nyker

KIDS are curious creatures: they want to know how this works and what that means and why, why, why. And this guy was no exception – although from early on it was clear he was next-level in the inquisitive department.

Exactly how did the TV work, he wanted to know? What was the chemical composition of the wiper fluid in his dad’s car? And why didn’t it freeze in countries where it snowed a lot?

He asked a lot of questions, and despite their best efforts his parents – his mom was a nurse and his dad a gastroenterologist– couldn’t always answer him completely.

Their young son wanted to know everything and the sooner he could figure things out for himself the better for everyone, they reasoned.

Today Abdul-Khaaliq Mohamed’s mind is as curious and active as ever – and he’s using it in a rather amazing way.

Abdul-Khaaliq is leading a team at Wits University in Johannesburg who are developing a prosthetic hand that works with electrochemical signals from the brain. Their hand is sensitive and nimble enough to hold all sorts of objects, including a pen and a marble.

It requires no surgery to be fitted and costs a fraction of what something similar would cost elsewhere in the world.

The hand, which is still in the planning phase, could give amputees a whole new lease on life. Artificial hands can be cumbersome, heavy, difficult to operate and cripplingly expensive. This one, the 32-year-old boffin says, is none of those things.

IT COMES as no surprise to learn Abdul-Khaaliq has an impressive CV. He has a degree in information engineering and a master’s degree in biomedical and control engineering. He has worked as a software developer for Nokia Siemens Networks, a business analyst for Nedbank and an engineering consultant for an electrical industry consultancy.