CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - 'Shark Tank' gives entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their inventions and businesses to tycoons, and this Friday, two former University of Illinois graduate students will appear on the show.
PSYONIC CEO and founder Aadeel Akhtar and retired Army Sgt. Garrett Anderson are set to appear on the show that will air 7 p.m. Friday.
The News Gazette reports Akhtar said that PSYONIC had just passed $1 million in a crowdfunding campaign when he got a call from the show’s producer, asking if they wanted to audition.
Akhtar founded the company in 2015.
“I’ve wanted to build bionic limbs my entire life, ever since I was seven,” he told the News Gazette. “My parents are from Pakistan. I was born in the Chicagoland area, and I was visiting Pakistan and that was the first time I met someone missing a limb. She was my age, missing her right leg, using a tree branch as a crutch.”
Almost 20 years ago, Anderson, the outreach coordinator and student recruiter for the UI’s Chez Veterans Center, lost his right forearm to a roadside explosion in Iraq.
He and Akhtar connected through a mutual friend at the University of Illinois.
“Aadeel was doing this project with prosthetics, and they linked us together through a project, and then we just started working together,” Anderson said.
Anderson said he tested the product before it was on the market and was its first user in the country. He told the News Gazette he’s been involved with about eight different versions of the company’s bionic hand.
Akhtar said PSYONIC’s Ability Hand is comprised of a combination of 3-D printed materials, which are reinforced with industrial-grade carbon fiber, silicone and rubber. It is made to be inexpensive to manufacture so Medicaid will cover it in the U.S.
“The fingers close within 200 milliseconds, so it’s faster than we blink our own eyes, which is kind of cool,” he said.
The hand provides touch feedback for users and is water-resistant, USB-C rechargeable and durable. Anderson has put that durability to the test by using it to break flaming boards and ice blocks.
“The difference between this hand and other hands is the spring steel that’s in the fingers, so you can actually slam it on a desk and it won’t break,” Anderson said. “But if you did this with any other prosthetic or high-end prosthetic on the market, fingers would be flying all over place.”
The hand is lightweight and can be customized for daily use.
The hand offers about 32 different grips, and users can program up to four in their hand at a time.
Akhtar told the News Gazette they are still working to directly integrate the hand to users’ bones and nerves to provide individual finger control. That could allow users to do things like type or play a piano. They hope to start clinical trials in the next year or two.
As for the 'Shark Tank' experience, Akhtar said, “It was kind of intense, the back and forth between the sharks. And I watched a ton of episodes prior to this just in preparation for it, but you never know what they’re going to ask.”
The episode will also be available to stream on Hulu the day after it airs.
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