Engineering the Next Generation of a Machine Known as "The Human Body"
From: Michigan Engineer - Fall 2011 - page 14
By: Matt Nixon

Just like any machine that breaks, where there's a will there is a way to
reassemble it. Any machine that once worked can be fixed, even one as complex
and wonderful as the human body. New means for fixing the planet's most
sophisticated machine are the focus of many a sleepless night for researchers
around the globe. For the Michigan engineer, like a rock climber, a bigger
more complex problem is all that much better. Solving it is, in that sense,
much more significant, more personal ... a challenge of this magnitude must
be met with equal intellectual force. Close your eyes and you can imagine
being blind. Plug your ears and you can imagine being deaf. On a flat
surface, palm down, make a fist and then extend your ring finger. In that
position, attempt to raise your ring finger vertically. Now you can imagine
paralysis. Go ahead and try it with your other fingers. There's a terrible
difference. Through accident or congenital indifference, losing a bodily
function is too awful to picture. Invariably the physically gifted take the
machine for granted -  until it breaks down. For far too many, that's their
waking nightmare. Here is what engineers at the University of Michigan
College of Engineering are working on.  

    Total artificial lung
    Cochlear implant
    Visual prosthetics (sonar eyes)
    Customized-scaffold approach to bone and tissue repair
    BioBolt
    Bipedal locomotion
    Direct brain control

Read the entire article at:
http://www.engin.umich.edu/newscenter/pubs/engineer/engineerfeatures/human2 (with videos)
http://www.engin.umich.edu/newscenter/pubs/engineer/11F/MichEngineerF2011.pdf