| Aadeel Akhtar | |||||||||
| Birth Date: | 15 January 1987 | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | Streamwood, Illinois, USA | ||||||||
| Known For: | Founder and CEO of PSYONIC | ||||||||
| Website: | https://www.aadeelakhtar.com/ | ||||||||
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| Alma Mater: | Loyola University ChicagoUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | ||||||||
| Years Active: | 2015–present | ||||||||
Aadeel Akhtar (born 15 January 1987) is a neuroscientist and electrical engineer. He is CEO and founder of the bionics company PSYONIC. In 2021, he was named one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35[1] and was featured in Newsweek’s “America's 50 Greatest Disruptors: Visionaries Who Are Changing the World.”[2]
Akhtar earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience and M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. He received a B.S. in Biology in 2007 and M.S. in Computer Science in 2008 at Loyola University Chicago.[3]
The company's first product, the Ability Hand, is the fastest bionic hand in the world with sensors that attach to the users’ remaining limb,[4] allowing them to control the hand with their arm muscles.[5] It is also the first hand on the market to give users touch feedback, so they can feel what sensors in the fingertips are experiencing,[6] and it is covered by Medicare.[7]
In early 2024, PSYONIC completed a $3.1 million crowdfunded equity raise and earned a $1 million offer on ABC's Shark Tank from Lori Greiner, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary.[8]
Akhtar launched PSYONIC in 2015 while a graduate student at UIUC.[9] He says that he was first inspired to work on affordable and accessible prosthetic limbs when he met an amputee as a child on a family trip to Pakistan.[10]
The company offers a research version of their bionic hand that is used by organizations like Apptronik, NASA, and Meta.[11] Two of the top five finishers in the ANA AVATAR XPRIZE used PSYONIC Ability Hands.
Akhtar and PSYONIC also develop artificial tendons and collaborate with Northwestern University’s John Rogers on flexible patches that provide haptic feedback through the skin for augmented reality applications.[12]