The Center's affiliation with the Stanford University Schools of Engineering and Medicine provides a fertile intellectual and academic atmosphere, and fosters many professional collaborations and student interactions. Particularly strong is the interaction between Rehab R&D Center investigators and the faculty associated with the the new Biomechanical Engineering Division of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Functional Restoration. In fact, many Rehab R&D Center investigators have faculty appointments in these departments. Graduate and undergraduate students are routinely involved in Rehab R&D Center research, design, and development projects. Some Rehab R&D Center projects make use of laboratory facilities at Stanford University and at Stanford University Medical Center. The Stanford facilities involved with Rehab R&D Center projects are described here.

Plastic Surgery Research Lab
Program in Functional Restoration
The Plastic Surgery Research Laboratory of the Department of Functional Restoration of Stanford University Medical School occupies 700 square feet and contains a tissue culture room with incubator and laminar flow hood; histology processing room with distilled water supply, cryogenic refrigerators, additional incubators, autoclave and tissue processor; storage room and general lab and office space containing two Macintosh computers with video image board, two high-power microscopes with video camera, standard refrigerators, chemical hood, and microtome.

Center for Design Research
Building 560
The Center for Design Research (CDR) was founded in 1984 to study and support engineering design. CDR is dedicated to solving real design problems, fostering individual creativity, formulating design theory, and crafting intelligent design tools. Faculty, staff, students and visiting researchers employ a dual strategy in their quest to discover the essence of design science. Issues relating to distributed design team collaborations through computer support, design knowledge capture and reuse, and concurrent engineering are investigated. Technologies related to improving the bi-directional communications between human and computers/robots through virtual environments and telepresence are also explored. Domain-specific problems in manufacturing, human computer interaction, and programmable electromechanical system design focus on real world problems of immediate interest.

In addition to supporting research, CDR maintains teaching laboratories for automation and machine design, electro-mechanical system design, finite element analysis and robotics. Resources include SUN, DEC, IBM, SGI, and Macintosh workstations; desktop manipulators with a variety of sensate end-effectors; PUMA manipulators; Adept-One precision assembly robot with machine vision; and Automatix Robotworld Lab Development System.

Smart Product Design Laboratory
Terman Engineering Center
The Smart Product Design Laboratory (SPDL) is an educational facility linked to the Center for Design Research. The laboratory supports an aggressive three-quarter course, Smart Product Design (ME218) in the graduate Mechanical Engineering, Design Division program that gives students an opportunity to identify, design, and prototype smart projects. The course teaches the students the philosopy, theory, and practice of integrating microprocessor hardware/software and electromechanical technology in devices.SPDL is equipped with 12 workstations including Intel 486 microcomputers, printers, oscilloscopes, frequency counters, digital voltmeters, development software, and a variety of device programmers.

Electromyography and Applied Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory
Stanford University Medical Center
The Electromyography and Applied Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory supports the collection and analysis of clinical electrophysiology data from the human neuromuscular system. The specific instrumentation and focus of the laboratory parallels what is found at the Neuromuscular Electrophysiology Laboratory at the Rehabilitation R&D Center.

Center for Integrated Systems and Ginzton Laboratories
The Center for Integrated Systems houses facilities for research in integrated circuit fabrication. These facilities enable exploration in the fabrication of the extremely thin silicon wafers needed for the Nerve Chip project. These facilities include plasma etchers, reactors, photoresist spinners, photoresist bake ovens, photoresist developer benches, mask aligners, a scanning electron microscope, optical microscopes, ellipsometer, surface profilometer, and various sinks needed to perform the numerous cleaning steps used in microfabrication. The Ginzton Laboratories provide the metal evaporation capability needed for deposition of biocompatible metals onto the nerve chip.

Biomechanical Engineering Division
The Biomechanical Engineering (BME) Division has research and teaching programs which focus primarily on neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular biomechanics. Research in other areas including hearing, vision, ocean and plant biomechanics, biomaterials, biosensors, and imaging informatics are conducted in collaboration with associated faculty in medicine, biology, and engineering. The BME Division has particularly strong research interactions with the Mechanics and Computation Division and the Design Division in the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Departments of Functional Restoration, Surgery, and Radiology in the School of Medicine.