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Ignacio Montoya

@ignacioinmotion

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Neuroengineer Advancing Human Mobility Systems, Neurotechnology & Accessibility to Expand Participation, Independence & Health After Paralysis

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Every milestone leads to the next. In the @wandercraft.official exoskeleton, @ignacioinmotion has gone from learning to reduce robotic assistance to practicing the precise micro-movements needed for meaningful real-world activities, even kicking a soccer ball ⚽ . Every step represents months of perseverance, innovation, and rehabilitation, bringing him one step closer to greater independence.

Special thank you to @masfamilyscholarships for all the support in helping make this a reality!

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Sneak peek from the final day of on-campus research for the Exoskeleton project 🦾 here at Rancho Research Institute with @ignacioinmotion , Dr.Hui Zhong and Dr.Christopher Johnson! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing exclusive footage of the exoskeleton in action, behind-the-scenes moments with the team (including some time kicking the soccer ball around), and an interview with Ignacio as he dives into the project’s purpose, history, personal experience with using the exoskeleton and vision for what’s ahead. 🌟

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A look at @ignacioinmotion in action with the @wandercraft.official exoskeleton 👀 Designed to gradually reduce assistance over time, it encourages more effort with each step and shifts the work back to the user. In this video, the assistance level is set to 0 percent, requiring full active participation.

As support decreases, the focus becomes building strength, control, and consistency through repetition and weight bearing movement.

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Great to have Ignacio and the research team from Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center at NextStep LA.

Progress happens when we choose community over competition. Bringing together researchers, clinicians, and people living with paralysis helps move the mission forward: Victory Over Paralysis®. Together, we create more opportunities, drive innovation, and strengthen hope for the SCI community. 💙

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The final days of Reggie’s clinical study has come to a close. A chapter that holds years of grit, growth, and heart. We’ve been working with Ignacio since January 2020, moving through some of the happiest moments and some of the hardest. Through every high and every heartbreak, we stayed steady. We kept showing up. We kept fighting for progress.

Reggie’s passing was unexpected and deeply felt, but his spirit never left this room. His curiosity, his belief in recovery, and his love for this work carried us forward. And Ignacio… you honored him with every rep, every step, every breakthrough.

@edgerton_edgerton , you would’ve been proud.

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First-year BME Ph.D. student Ignacio Montoya is seen here walking in a self-balancing exoskeleton, an apparatus that recently earned first place at the @gatechengineers’s FAIR Tech Student Innovation Competition.

Thirteen years ago, Georgia Tech was the last place Ignacio walked before his spinal cord injury. Today, he’s back, redefining what is possible.

Ignacio’s research and passion focus on shifting the physiatric paradigm from passive care to active participation, helping prevent long-term health decline caused by inactivity. ✨ #WeCanDoThat

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In 2012, Ignacio Montoya was weeks from graduating from Georgia Tech and becoming an Air Force fighter pilot when a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Since then, he’s earned a master’s in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech in 2018 and worked at UCLA’s prestigious neurophysiology and neurorehabilitation lab, known for its pioneering research in spinal stimulation. Now he’s returning to the last place he walked, Georgia Tech, to pursue his Ph.D.

Joining Cassie Mitchell, an associate professor in @coulterbme, Montoya’s research utilizes AI to investigate how robotic exoskeletons and spinal cord stimulation can reawaken dormant neural circuits, enabling people with paralysis to regain sensation, mobility, autonomy, and vital physiological functions once thought permanently lost.

Montoya’s dream is to change the standard of care for paralysis and create a continuum of care for people with chronic injury. 🐝

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“This isn’t good bye, it’s a see you later” 🥹💗

Our amazing trainer @yulyspin is moving to Florida & we will miss her enthusiasm for helping others & excellent training skills, but we are also excited for her next adventure!

Good luck, @yulyspin 💖

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After a locomotor training session, clients will do overground training. @revrsnparalysis was showing off for the camera today, but he’s been making gains due to his consistent work in and out of the facility!

Overground Training takes the nervous system’s new capacity to the overground environment. In this setting, specific limitations to independent walking including gait deviations are addressed.

Great work @revrsnparalysis 🔥🔥

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Ignacio said it best—

“Nothing is Impossible! Here’s new mobility and function after a right complete brachial plexus injury (nerve root avulsion) 11 years post + 2 nerve transfers 6 months post injury — previously flaccid right arm but thank God stable shoulder - no subluxation. Intense upper extremity training regimen part of my ADLs with FES, Myopro, Shockwave, Pneumatic Glove, Vibrating compression sleeve, for improved health, quality of life, and functional independence.”

NextStep’s goal is to open NextStep paralysis recovery centers across the country to ensure an improved quality-of-life and a continuum of care for this underserved population. By offering standardized activity-based therapy programs and interventions, based on research; our centers provide the best chance for recovery, independence, and health.

Join our @nextstepla community and help us uplift our message!

🩵🤍SISU

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We celebrate SWM recipient and Cal State Los Angeles Kinesiology major Ignacio Montoya today. Happy Birthday to a dedicated researcher and accessible space flight ambassador! #swimwithmike #rippleeffect

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Behind every successful entrepreneur, there’s an amazing team. I wanna give a huge shoutout to my bff @heidigutierrez6755 (shameless promo-go check out her nail artwork @_nail_spot) and my eternal partna in crime @mastermind_xii for how much you two come through for me. I love and adore you guys as well as @hildatorres206 cause I know I can always count on her too ♥️♥️♥️ #fy #fyp #fypage #fypシ

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