Austin Whitney was 18 when a car accident left him paralyzed from the waist down — yet he was determined to not let that tragedy derail his plans for college. Determined to pursue his education, he enrolled at UC Santa Barbara just 10 days after being released from the hospital, later transferring to UC Berkeley. And when he stood out of his wheelchair and walked across the stage at his Berkeley commencement ceremony, thousands in the crowd stood alongside him in thunderous applause. This moment was made possible by the decades-long research of UC Berkeley Professor Homayoon Kazerooni. His work began with the 2004 unveiling of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton, designed to augment human strength for load-bearing. Kazerooni quickly recognized the medical potential of this technology for individuals with mobility disorders like paralysis. This vision led to the founding of Ekso Bionics, which created the first commercial exoskeleton for rehabilitation in 2009. Kazerooni later c...