A track on research to aid people with disabilities has resulted in adaptive equipment, special electronics and software programs. The computational and experimental neuroscience track uses computer-based instrumentation and imaging devices to better understand structure and functioning of neural and muscular systems. The biomedical signal and image processing track involves application of digital signal processing techniques to biomedical problems. For example, computer assisted software has been developed to speed and enhance the analysis of tissues, including microscopic structures like mitochondria in the cells. Computer modeling of physiological systems helps the team gain new insights into the cardiovascular system, atherosclerosis, respiration, hearing and sight, among other things.
Computer modeling is also essential in basic physiological research.
It is being applied to cardiac and smooth muscle tissues, treated as complex systems. The partnership is exploring new research tracks, as well as drawing on established expertise of individual URI scientists, such as 15 years of work by Sun on computer simulations of various heart diseases and many years of analysis of invertebrate cardiac control by Hill. Their findings have been published in the American Journal of Physiology and Journal of Experimental Biology. A computer, equipped to run Sun's equations, can measure coronary artery blockage with a high degree of accuracy and consistency. Heartlab in Westerly , one of the industrial members of the partnership, is also working to develop such tools.