Marie André Destarac
Marie André Destarac (born 25 February 1981) is a Guatemalan scientist who specializes in engineering, electronics and robotics. Her goal is to apply her engineering knowledge and expertise in medicine projects. In 2015, Destarac received an MIT award named ""Innovators under 35 in Central America"" an acknowledgement by the MIT Technology Review magazine. She was the only woman to get the award. It's an active member of the Organization For Women In Science For The Developing World, chapter Guatemala (OWSD GT) executing and planning events to decrease the gender gap, so girls and women can study  careers in STEM. Career and education. Destarac studied electronic engineer in Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, in 2013 she received a master's degree in Robotics and Automation from the Technical University of Madrid with a scholarship she received from the Education, Culture and Sports Minister of Spain. In 2018, she received a Ph,D. in Robotics by the Technical University of Madrid by the Industrial Ph,D. scholarships program with the support of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain. Since 2005, Destarac works in research projects in Guatemala, Japan and Spain, her field of work is  automation, robotics and medical devices development, she's been a professor at her alma mater Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, teaching computer science, engineering and electronics. She was also the coordinator of innovation research projects to support students to get their Bachelor's degree. Destarac worked as Senior robotics engineer at Aura Innovative Robotics, a startup company from Spain, committed to develop medical devices, later Destarac was hired by the Spanish National Research Council as a postdoctoral researcher. Destarac currently works as a project manager for the ATLAS pediatric exoskeleton at Madrid, Spain, focusing on device optimization and coordinating and  supervising rehabilitation sessions with children using the exoskeleton and the impact of using robotics on children with walking impairment diseases. Destarac runs the human walking analysis laboratory at the Robotics and Automation Center at CSIC. Robotics and health. Destarac has research the creation of exoskeletons to help treat shoulder and elbow injuries as part of her Ph,D. studies. She's focused on creating a 3D simulation that replicates the muscular behavior and shows injured zones, the importance of this simulator lies on allowing doctors to test treatment thru simulation and then apply to patients, Destarac is also working on  building adaptive control systems for exoskeleton rehabilitation, these systems intelligently and in real time adapt the response of the exoskeleton to the needs of the patient.