BCI / Brain-Computer Interface Race
WHi Students
Italy
About the Team
The WHi Students Team is a group of bioengineering Master’s students from the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Padua. Their interest in robotics and machine learning led them to the BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) discipline after learning about the Cybathlon and the presence of the expert WHi Team within their department. They began exploring BCI in October 2023 and started practical training with their pilot, Filippo Boldrin, in March 2024. Filippo, an undergraduate statistics student, plays a central role in the team’s efforts. Collaboration and mutual support have been key to the project's development.
WHi Students
About the Pilot
Filippo Boldrin is a curious and determined 20-year-old. From an early age, he has played various sports, from basketball to soccer, consistently demonstrating the determination that has always set him apart. This trait remained with him even after his life changed dramatically in August 2019, when an accident led to the fracture of his C4-C5 vertebrae. After his recovery, he began playing Paralympic table tennis, for which he trains twice a week, achieving significant results. Since March, he has also taken on the role of pilot in the WHi Students team, training weekly for the BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) specialty in the Cybathlon competition. Filippo is deeply committed to advancing research in assistive technologies, motivated by his desire to help individuals with similar conditions gain greater independence and improve their quality of life.
About the Device
The team's BCI strategy is based on the concept of mutual learning, where both the user and the computer learn from each other to enhance performance. The EEG-based BCI leverages the pilot's ability to control sensorimotor rhythms, particularly those related to imagined foot movements.
