On Thursday morning, August 27, 2026, the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University, held the PhD dissertation defense of the doctoral candidate Mohammed Samir Kadhim. His dissertation was entitled:

Design and Fabrication of a Smart Soft Fingers Rehabilitation Hand with Embedded Sensors

The Examination Committee consisted of:

Professor Dr. Alaa Abdul-Hassan Attia, President of the University of Baghdad – Chair.
Professor Dr. Sadiq Abbas Abdul-Hassoun, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad – Member.
Professor Dr. Anas Qusay Hashim, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University – Member.
Assistant Professor Dr. Sadiq Jaafar Abbas, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University – Member.
Assistant Professor Dr. Hassanein Ali Lafta, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University – Member.

The dissertation was supervised by:

Professor Emeritus Dr. Nabil Kadhim Abdul-Sahib, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University.
Professor Dr. Mohammed Abdul-Sattar Mohammed, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University.

The dissertation aimed to design and fabricate a smart, soft hand-rehabilitation system intended to assist patients with impaired finger motor function, particularly post-stroke patients. The system employed soft pneumatic actuators fabricated from RTV-2 silicone rubber to provide safe and gradual flexion movements of the finger joints. It also integrated a set of sensors to monitor joint angles, grip force, and pressure, in addition to monitoring muscular electrical activity using surface electromyography (sEMG) signals.

The dissertation addressed the design, fabrication, and testing of three successive developmental prototypes of the rehabilitation glove, with the aim of improving the flexibility of the pneumatic actuators, enhancing movement efficiency, increasing grip force, and achieving better conformity with the anatomical structure of the hand. The system also incorporated a control and monitoring platform for collecting, displaying, and analyzing sensor data, thereby enabling evaluation of the user’s response and monitoring of rehabilitation progress during therapeutic exercises.

The experimental results demonstrated a clear improvement in the performance of the final prototype. The range of motion of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint increased from 11.5° to 86.8°, while grip force increased from 0.65 N to 12.85 N. Furthermore, the root mean square value of the forearm electromyographic signal (RMS-EMG) increased from 7.0 µV to 160.5 µV, reflecting an increased level of muscular engagement associated with the performed movements.

The study concluded that the proposed smart rehabilitation glove demonstrates promising potential as a safe, lightweight, assistive engineering system capable of supporting finger-flexion movements while simultaneously monitoring motor and muscular indicators. However, further clinical testing involving larger patient populations is required to validate its therapeutic effectiveness.

The dissertation was scientifically evaluated by:

Professor Dr. Ali Hussein Mohammed, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University – First Scientific Evaluator.
Professor Dr. Nizar Abdul-Latif Jassim, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad – Second Scientific Evaluator.

The dissertation was also linguistically evaluated by Lecturer Dr. Muna Mustafa Karim from the College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University.

At the conclusion of the defense, the Examination Committee commended the scientific and engineering effort devoted to the design, fabrication, and testing of the system, as well as the significance of the dissertation topic in the field of rehabilitation engineering and assistive medical devices. The dissertation was approved as fulfilling the requirements for the award of the PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering.