‘Exoskeleton’ helps paralysed US student to walk again at graduation

When graduating senior Austin Whitney rose from his wheelchair and walked across the stage at UC Berkeley's commencement ceremony, the crowd of 15,000 at Edwards Stadium went wild with cheers.

A double major in history and political science, Whitney, who was paralysed in a car accident that severed his spinal cord just below the hip, walked at his college graduation with the help of an exoskeleton.

Four years ago, the Southern California teen with a 4.0 GPA who loved sports and theatre was forced to adapt to life in a wheelchair after he got behind the wheel while drunk and crashed into a tree.

"If somebody told me four years ago that I'd be walking at this graduation, I would have never believed them in a million years," ABC News quoted Whitney as saying.

But Whitney did just that. With mechanical braces strapped to his body and motorised joints directed by a computer brain, he triumphantly walked across the stage at commencement -- a moment that reflected more than just the achievement of a four-year college degree.

"Everything over the last four years and all the emotions of it are really going to be climaxed in those two seconds," he said before his big day.

Hospitalised for 41 days after his crash, the incoming college freshman didn't let his paralysis hinder his plans to attend school. Ten days after being released from the hospital, he was in the classroom at UC Santa Barbara, where he spent his freshman year before transferring to UC Berkeley.
 
Whitney began working with Homayoon Kazerooni, a professor of mechanical engineering, and a team of graduate students to develop the wearable robotic skeleton that helped him achieve his dream of walking again.

"I stood up in that machine for the first time on my 22nd birthday and that was the first time standing up really in four years," Whitney said.

"I trust the machine an amazing amount. I know that machine like it is my own legs," he added.