Associate Professor Yumna Albertus is the director of the University of Cape Town’s Health through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport research entity. (Photo: Biénne Huisman/Spotlight)News & Features
21st November 2025 | Biénne Huisman
What started as a childhood fascination with science and sport has grown into a mission to “democratise” technology with innovative, affordable rehabilitation solutions for people with limited resources. Spotlight sits down with the associate professor – who was once a volleyball captain and is now the head of a top research centre – and who is proving that low-cost solutions are possible.
Inside her office at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, Associate Professor Yumna Albertus brims with enthusiasm while discussing her latest patent in the offing: “It blows my mind, I am so excited. This is going to change everything,” she says.
Albertus is an exercise physiologist who specialises in rehabilitation and biomechanics, with a particular interest in low-cost solutions. She is the director of Health through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport (HPALS), a research centre at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Here, as a student, she captained the women’s volleyball team, acquiring soft skills which she credits for her success today.
The patent Albertus is referencing is a millimetre-wave radar that will measure minute muscle activity using high-frequency radio waves. She is developing this non-contact sensing technology with Associate Professor Amir Patel, known for his application of cheetah movement to robotic design.
For example, she says: “It will look at vibrations on the skin and from there will infer the heart rate. The same with the respiratory rate, looking at the defamation of the diaphragm in the chest.”
Their study, published in 2024 in the IEEE Sensors Journal, concludes: “This system will enable muscle activation to be measured in an unconstrained and less cumbersome manner for both the person conducting the test and the individual being tested.”
Albertus and Patel have already produced two patents. One for specialised force plates (metal plates with sensors for measuring impact) and the other for inertial motion sensors (tiny electronic devices that track movement). These are set to be manufactured at low cost by Acino Tech, a start-up biomechanics company that was co-founded by Albertus, Patel and senior engineer Devin Stickells, with support from UCT’s Research Contracts and Innovation office, in 2021.
High-tech and high prices
At the time of our interview, Albertus had just returned from Mumbai in India where she delivered a keynote address at the Mahatma Gandhi Mission Hospital’s rehabilitation center. “[T]hey were interested in the work I am doing with regards to using technology and working with mechanical engineers, and democratising that kind of technology,” she says.
Albertus explains that high-tech rehabilitation tools are typically developed in high-income settings with big grants and commercial partnerships.
“What we are finding is that the industry is a type of monopoly, prices are being fixed,” she says. “And the prices are exorbitant, so exorbitant that the economically developing countries really struggle to gain access.”
For Albertus, creating affordable solutions is a top priority.
“Democratising technology and innovation for use in resource constrained settings is key,” she says. “At HPALS, we are doing research for people, not just for journal entries. We really specialise in taking research beyond publication. What’s the point of top tech sitting in labs? And only in certain labs, those with funding?”
“Surf therapy” and 3D printed prosthesis for children
One of Albertus’ projects is the development of low-cost 3D printed prosthesis for children living with disabilities. A paper detailing the research is currently being prepared for publication and peer review as they work to drum up funding to extend the study.
South African surfing champion Roxy Davis sparked the idea for the prosthesis with her PhD dissertation, which Albertus co-supervised, on ocean rehabilitation for “differently abled surfers”. Davis along with volunteers offer free “surf therapy” at Muizenberg beach through the Roxy Davis Foundation. They have trained several South African para surfers who competed at the World Para Surf Championships.
“It started with our PhD candidate Roxy Davis, who helps kids with disabilities, including amputations, get into the water for rehabilitation,” says Albertus. “They had one session a week for six weeks, it is a six-week programme, with surfboards adapted for their different types of needs. So over three years, we followed the children, and the findings were astounding: it changed how they saw themselves in the world. They just became happier and they became more confident. And just the freedom that came with it.”
One day on Muizenberg beach, Albertus was standing beside Michael Awood, a biomedical engineer at UCT who specialises in assistive technologies. The two academics were watching the young para surfers, pondering: “What can we design to help them in the water?”
Albertus recalls: “There was one individual, he was a quadruple amputee, missing both arms and both legs. And we said, surely, we could make a prosthesis with 3D printing to help him, because biomedical engineering has multiple 3D printers…”
The researchers interviewed the young para surfers, noting their needs and fears, then set about building a prototype.
“For example,” says Albertus, “if it was an arm amputation, the prosthesis looked like a flipper, allowing them to paddle in the water. But as soon as the para surfer got onto the surfboard, it would lock in place and allow support, instead of just the bare stump which was what they had been using.”
The project expanded from there, with the researchers deciding that similar technology should be made available to any child with an amputation.
More compelling projects on the go
Other ongoing projects at HPALS include using telemedicine in spinal cord injury rehabilitation – essentially using smartphones for communicating with patients, enabling rehabilitation exercises at home. “Once again, we really look at research for people,” says Albertus. “We want to empower individuals to be able to do their rehab at home. I mean, traveling to a rehab centre is expensive and logistically difficult, especially if you are a wheelchair user.”
Another is a study involving biomechanics in cricket. “That’s a massive study on its own,” says Albertus. “It came about through orthopedic surgeons trying to understand why they are receiving so many shoulder injuries in cricket players.”
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On the clinical side, Albertus is leading a group investigating neuromuscular changes in children with cerebral palsy, alongside Associate Professor and neurosurgeon Nico Enslin at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. Again, her excitement is palpable: “We are the first ones doing this, it truly is a pioneering study, it is daunting and exciting!”
R3.5 million robotic exoskeleton suit
Albertus sparked attention in 2018 for leading a randomised controlled trial on robotic exoskeletons – the first of its kind in Africa, she says. The robotic suit cost R3.5 million and was procured through The Walking with Brandon Foundation, founded in 2015 by the Beack family in Cape Town after an accident left 16-year-old gymnast Brandon Beack paralysed.
“I’ve always conducted neuromuscular tests for Paralympic athletes and patients and in 2015, I was approached to conduct these tests on Brandon Beack, who experienced a spinal cord injury during gymnastic training,” says Albertus.
The suit allows a person with a spinal cord injury to walk within the suit. “So, I grabbed the opportunity to investigate the impact this very expensive innovative technology had on neuromuscular physiology, functional performance and mental wellbeing in patients,” she says.
The study had 16 participants – eight received exercise-based rehabilitation, and eight used the suit three times a week, for an hour. The logistics were immense. “We spent R400 000 on transport for our participants, and this was at a reduced rate. I mean, all our participants were wheelchair users, and we had to ensure there was no risk. Just the ethics of the study took about a year to sort out,” she says.
The findings showed improved cardio functioning, bone density and mental wellness among participants who used the suit. However, the study was put on hold due to the infeasibility of scaling such expensive technology in South Africa.
“The study made me aware that expensive rehabilitation tools are not feasible in my country, it could not be made easily accessible to all who need it,” says Albertus.
In addition, she says the main needs articulated by patients – increased independence at home and help reducing secondary complications – decentered the robotic suit. “For example, a challenge patients noted was pressure sores. In poorer countries, patients don’t necessarily have caregivers, so the patient needs help moving their body around,” Albertus says.
A love for science and sports
Her office window looks out over treetops with Table Mountain etched in the background. One of four daughters born to Faiq and Bashira, Albertus attended Livingston High School in Claremont, where she loved biology and sports from a young age. While studying at UCT, Albertus kept active playing volleyball for three years, even captaining the university’s team.
“I played volleyball throughout high school and university,” she says. “That kind of team sport really teaches you to work together and to have a common goal, it gives you so many soft skills, skills that I use today.”
In 2015, she started as a senior lecturer at HPALS and in 2023 she became its director. At present, the centre has 14 principal investigators in the Sports Science building, with more located on other parts of the campus, bringing their staff to around 20.
These days Albertus says she enjoys playing padel with her two teenage children and walking up Table Mountain and along the Sea Point promenade.
