This past spring, Tyler Susko, an associate teaching professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department (ME) received an Innovation Award from the Pacific Coast Business Times, recognizing Cadense, a startup Susko co-founded to create a shoe that aids people who experience foot drop.

Just over a year ago, after nine years of design and testing, some in partnership with UCSB mechanical engineering associate professor Elliott Hawkes, Susko, who also serves as undergraduate vice chair and capstone instructor in the ME Department, co-founded Cadense with the intention of helping the millions of people in the United States who experience foot drop, an inability when walking to avoid scuffing the ground when bringing one foot forward through the air to take the next step.

Most people who experience the condition, which can result from a number of causes, rely on a simple brace called an ankle foot orthosis, which locks the foot into a position right-angled to the ankle, so that it cannot drop as it moves forward. Hawkes joined Susko, who worked on rehabilitative robots while pursuing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to come up with an actual shoe that does the same thing but looks like an ordinary running shoe and gets excellent results. Cadense and its innovative shoe are allowing users to step into a brand-new world of possibility.