Rick Neptune
Professor
Department of
Mechanical Engineering

Rick Neptune never stepped onto a football field as a pro. But the expert on lower-limb disabilities has made his mark by studying ways to improve the quality of life for these individuals, one step at a time.

The former college player instead turned his energies to biomechanical engineering research. His emphasis on understanding how people with various disabilities move grew from encounters with patients that began in California in 1998, and continued after he joined the university in 2001.

"The idea of being able to help someone, whether by designing a better prosthetic device, or coming up with a new rehabilitative approach, is very motivating," said Neptune, a fit father of four who stays active by bicycling with his family these days.

Growing up in the mountains in California, he discovered a knack for dismantling mechanical devices and fixing them. "I had a '78 Subaru that I had to keep running, which included putting in a new motor and transmission - it was pretty fun."

After playing high-school football and winning a State Championship, Neptune thought he'd found his future career. He transferred from a junior college to the University of California - Davis after two years because "they really emphasize the student athlete." He completed a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1991 while playing strong safety for the Aggies football team and earning All-Conference honors.

But after graduation, he and his new wife, Denise, set aside his football career and decided to stay in Davis near church and family. He pursued a master's and a doctorate that focused on sports biomechanics - the study of how the body's nervous system and muscles work together during tasks such as running or cycling.

In the second year of his master's degree, he injured his left knee playing basketball and underwent reconstructive surgery. "As a part of rehabilitation, I spent a lot of time on a stationary bicycle, and after I recovered, I continued to ride."

His experience, he notes, pales in comparison to the hardships people endure who lose muscle strength with aging, suffer a stroke or have other long-term health problems. "I knew there was an end to my injury and rehabilitation," Neptune said, "whereas with somebody who's had a stroke, a portion of their mental and physical capabilities can be permanently lost."

Neptune used the rehab experience to inform and shape both his personal and professional life. His biking passion led to him winning the 1999 California Bicycling Master Sprint State Championship. He has also used pedaling to study muscle coordination. While earning his Ph.D., for example, he developed computer models of healthy cyclists to understand the biomechanics of lower limbs in motion on a bike.

Before coming to The University of Texas at Austin in 2001, Neptune joined the Rehabilitation Research and Development Center at the Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif. There he further integrated his passion for cycling with his biomedical engineering research. He used the computer models he developed at UC Davis to evaluate patients who had suffered strokes and were willing to ride stationary bikes at the center.

Last year in Austin, he began a similar study with Dr. Steve Kautz at the VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla., to develop computer models of stroke victims as they walk. The study's goal is to determine which leg muscles are impaired and how this impacts their ability to walk. This will provide insight into how to design rehabilitation programs to improve recovery.

He is also looking at how to custom design prosthetics to improve amputee gait. "The challenge is to understand how to design a prosthesis for each individual, because we are all different," says Neptune.

In related research, he designs orthotic devices that can assist those with lower limb muscle weakness or other neurological disorders during walking. The goal of these devices is to provide the energy during walking that is normally provided by the impaired muscles.

He creates prototypes of the devices using selective laser sintering, a hi-tech manufacturing process developed on campus by Professor Joseph Beaman Jr. Beaman chairs the Department of Mechanical Engineering where Neptune works, and holds the Ernest F. Gloyna Regents Chair in Engineering.

For Neptune's work on applying laser sintering to improve mobility in those with lower-limb disabilities, he received the da Vinci Award last year from the Engineering Society of Detroit and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Neptune went to Detroit for the awards ceremony with his wife, which was the first time in six years they were away from their children. They usually combine exercise and family by riding their triplet, a bicycle built for three he outfitted to accommodate six by adding a booster seat and a trailer. Before their four children arrived, he and his wife also toured major portions of several states on their tandem bicycle, and have been the first finishers of a 200-mile single day race several times.

"Our tandem was the single best investment we ever made as a couple," Neptune said, "because it is something that we can do together."