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Poster & Oral Award Presentations I

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Room 302
Thursday, October 8, 2026
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Room 302

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Join us for the Poster & Oral Award Presentations to celebrate the outstanding research contributions of this year's award recipients. - George Austin-Cliff / Early Career Scholar Award / Oral Presentation - Toshiyuki Shimizu / Student Trainee Award / Oral Presentation - Sunpreet Singh Hanspal / Early Career Scholar Award / Poster Presentation - Beatrice Ugiliweneza / Open Award / Poster Presentation - Akira Toga / Student Trainee Award / Poster Presentation


Presenter (only the submitting author is listed below; co-presenters, where applicable, will be listed in the conference app)

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Dr Harvinder Singh Chhabra
Director Of Spine And Rehabilitation Department
Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute

Moderator

Biography

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Mr Antonio Vecchio
Community And Consumer Engagement Manager
The Spinal Research Institute

Moderator

Biography

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Mr George Austin-Cliff
Phd Researcher
Swiss Paraplegic Research

Back to Work – But Does It Fit? The Impact of Vocational Disruption on Person-Job Match Following Spinal Cord Injury

1:35 PM - 1:50 PM

Biography

George Austin-Cliff is a PhD candidate in Health Sciences at the University of Lucerne, conducting research on employment trajectories and labour market participation after spinal cord injury. Working at Swiss Paraplegic Research (Nottwil), he draws on life-course methods and biographical narrative approaches to examine how people with SCI engage with "work" over time. Before his PhD, he trained in sociology and worked on research projects at the intersection of youth research and Disability Studies. He is committed to participatory and collaborative research designs that involve people with lived experience of SCI alongside the rehabilitation professionals who work with them.
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Dr Toshiyuki Shimizu
PhD student
Keio University School of Medicine

Establishment of a Common Marmoset TMS Platform for Acute Cervical Spinal Cord Injury Reveals Motor Recovery and Neural Circuit Remodeling

1:50 PM - 2:05 PM

Biography

Toshiyuki Shimizu, MD, is a PhD student in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Keio University School of Medicine. His research focuses on neuromodulation and regenerative medicine for spinal cord injury, with particular interests in translational neurorehabilitation and stem cell–based therapeutic strategies.
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Mr Sunpreet Singh Hanspal
Occupational Therapist
Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute

Gamified Sensor-Based Upper Extremity Functional Rehabilitation in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Clinical Trial

2:06 PM - 2:10 PM

Biography

Sunpreet Singh Hanspal is an Occupational Therapist at the Department of Spine and Rehabilitation, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, New Delhi, India. He specializes in spinal cord injury rehabilitation with a strong focus on technology-driven interventions. His work integrates gamified sensor-based systems, robotics, and task-oriented neurorehabilitation to enhance upper extremity function and functional independence. He is actively involved in research exploring innovative, evidence-based approaches to improve outcomes in neurological populations. His broader interests include neuroplasticity, human–technology interaction in rehabilitation, and advancing accessible rehabilitation solutions in resource-constrained settings.
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Dr Beatrice Ugiliweneza
Associate Professor
University Of Louisville

Systemic complications of pediatric spinal cord injury: Analysis of incidence, time of occurrence, and associated 5-year healthcare utilization and payments using insurance claims data

2:11 PM - 2:15 PM

Biography

Beatrice Ugiliweneza, PhD, MSPH, MSCS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, and a Director of Biostatistics for the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville. She holds a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Physics from Abdou Moumouni Dioffo University of Niamey in Niger (2006), a Master’s in Biostatistics (2011), a Doctorate in Applied and Industrial Mathematics (2011), and a Master’s in Computer Science and Engineering (2024). Her research focuses on advancing clinical and real-world evidence through Clinical Trial Analytics Research (CTAR), Health Outcomes and Economics Research (HOER), Health Services Research (HSR), Health Analytics Research (HAR), Real-World Evidence Research (RWER), and Explainable Machine Learning (EML) with emphasis on neurotrauma, treatment effectiveness, and outcome optimization. She has extensive experience in large databases including claims data, registries, surveys, electronic health records, and administrative databases. She has designed and executed multiple projects involving quantitative and qualitative analysis, including descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. She has collaborated in multidisciplinary teams, working closely with other scientists, engineers, researchers, medical doctors, allied health professionals, and postdoctoral scholars, resulting in more than 150 publications and millions in extramural funding. Her work has been disseminated at various regional, national, and international meetings.
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Dr Akira Toga
Phd Student
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Keio University School of Medicine

Frontoparietal Connectivity Represents a Major Rehabilitation-Associated Change After Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in Awake Marmosets

2:16 PM - 2:20 PM

Biography

Akira Toga, MD, is an orthopaedic surgeon and PhD candidate at Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. His research focuses on neuroplasticity and functional brain connectivity after spinal cord injury using awake resting-state fMRI in common marmosets. He is particularly interested in developing MRI-based biomarkers to evaluate recovery and rehabilitation-related brain reorganization after spinal cord injury.
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