Tyler Clites – Biomedical Engineer

Tyler Clites is a tinkerer. He’s been this way since childhood—coming up with inventions and taking things apart.

- By Peg Lopata

At summer invention camp he invented an automated egg cracker and a remote-controlled submarine. While in grade school he started an inventor’s club. They took apart old computers. “It was loads of fun until we got shut down because I accidentally blew all the fuses in the library,” he says. Clites is now an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He still likes to figure out how things work. His latest invention is a medical procedure that makes it possible for people without feet to feel like they have biological feet. He still regularly blows fuses.

WHAT IS YOUR FIELD CALLED, AND WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THESE DAYS?

I am in rehabilitation robotics—a field in which it is immediately possible to see the impact of my work on people’s lives. Currently, I’m designing an advanced prosthetic leg for runners. This new leg will allow people with leg amputation to run in different conditions, just like people with intact biological limbs do.

I’VE HEARD THAT PROSTHETIC FEET DON’T HAVE TOES. HOW CAN SOMEONE RUN ON A PROSTHETIC FOOT WITHOUT TOES?