Ignacio Montoya was on a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta in 2024 with a serendipitous seatmate. The biomedical engineer was seated next to Georgia Tech President Àngel Cabrera, and the two had a conversation about Montoya’s personal story and career aspirations. 

Cabrera introduced Montoya to a professor who could take his work to the next level — Cassie Mitchell, an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). Montoya’s research uses AI to study how robotic exoskeletons and spinal cord stimulation can reawaken dormant neural circuits and help people with paralysis regain sensation, mobility, autonomy, and vital physiological functions once thought permanently lost. Drawing on his experience in leading-edge clinical research, he aims to turn scientific discoveries into real-world solutions that improve independence, quality of life, and health for those with spinal cord injuries. 

It’s not only a curiosity for him, though. In 2012, Montoya was about to graduate from Georgia Tech and become a fighter pilot in the Air Force. Then, one night, he got into a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. 

Ever since, he has worked to better understand his injury and his options. After earning a master’s in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech in 2018, Montoya moved to Los Angeles and joined a prestigious neurophysiology and neurorehabilitation lab at UCLA known for pioneering spinal stimulation and activity-based training to restore movement after paralysis. Now he’s taking everything he’s learned back to Georgia Tech.

Mitchell, also a faculty member in the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society, applies AI to data science to parse and predict complex medical research. She is also quadriplegic and personally understands the value of spinal cord research. At first, Mitchell mentored Montoya through the BME Ph.D. application process. Now she is his advisor. Montoya starts the program this fall — and he hopes to bring his personal injury recovery insights to the entire spinal cord injury survivor community.

 “My experience as a research participant gives me a unique perspective as I transition into a doctoral researcher,” he said. “It helps me bridge the gap between understanding the science and translating it into real-world clinical practice.”

From Complete Paralysis to Possibility 

Montoya nearly died in the accident. It left him with a complete spinal cord injury and severe peripheral nerve damage in his right arm.

“The doctor told me my spinal cord was like a banana — and mine had been crushed in the middle,” he recalled. “He said I had a 1% chance of regaining any mobility, function, or sensation.”

But Montoya’s life has always been about beating the odds. At 6, he and his father immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba. Years later, he earned a rated pilot slot in the Air Force — a distinction achieved by fewer than 1% of cadets. Then came the motorcycle crash. He flatlined for 15 minutes — a medical event with less than a 1% chance of survival, and even lower odds of returning with full brain function. If anyone was going to defy that prognosis, it was Montoya. He set out not just to walk again, but to rebuild his life and transform his recovery into a blueprint for others to follow.

Exoskeleton Endeavors 

After finishing his master’s at Tech, Montoya went to work with Reggie Egerton, a pioneering neurobiologist at UCLA. With Egerton’s guidance, Montoya experimented with neuromodulation — using electrodes to stimulate the spinal cord. The stimulus helps to excite the neurons below the injury that no longer communicate with the brain. 

While wearing electrodes, Montoya trained in a robotic exoskeleton that progressively reduced its robotic assistance. This encouraged him to contribute increasing effort through each step. Over time, the device provided less support during the swing and stance phases of walking, requiring more active participation. Beyond stepping, Montoya performed standing and weight-shifting exercises, all demanding maximum effort to retrain his nervous system through repetitive, weight-bearing sensory input. 

“Neuromodulation creates a bridge of signals that helps the remaining intact nerve fibers below the injury communicate with each other, enhancing neuroplasticity within the system,” he said.

If the neuromodulation works as intended, it can effectively remodel the nervous system. Through this process and two nerve transfers, Montoya has regained some function in his paralyzed right arm. He has also reversed many common medical complications from paralysis: temperature regulation, body awareness, sexual function, bone density, muscle mass, and digestive health.

“My injury is no longer considered complete, and I believe I’m the first person to achieve that through a combination of spinal stimulation, intensive training, and daily weight-bearing rehabilitation,” Montoya said. “I’m constantly out of my wheelchair — standing, moving, and training. That consistency has been the key. Every day, I walk in an exoskeleton.”

Returning to Georgia Tech

What was supposed to be a 12-month clinical research study turned into the next five years of Montoya’s life. He also wanted to better understand human physiology and how locomotor training worked, so he did a master’s in kinesiology from California State University, Los Angeles. Despite the progress Montoya had made with advancing the field of spinal cord injury and his own mobility, he wanted to bring all his expertise together. That’s when he happened to board a flight to Atlanta in the spring of 2024 with Cabrera.

Initially, Montoya and Mitchell connected so she could help guide him through the Ph.D. application process, but they quickly realized their research was complementary. Montoya is an expert in clinical trials, and Mitchell is an expert in taking clinical trial data and using AI to gather insights. 

“Ignacio wants to diversify his skill set and take his research career further, and data science is what he needs to do that,” Mitchell said. “We will look at his exoskeleton data and try to optimize the exoskeleton to the patient using AI.” 

For the start of his Ph.D., Montoya will remain in Los Angeles to continue his exoskeleton experiments in Edgerton’s lab, which has been collecting terabytes of data he’s never been able to analyze in full. Mitchell’s lab will analyze all that data and pull predictive insights that can feed back to Egerton’s lab and improve the patient experience. 

“AI can identify patterns the human eye wouldn't be able to detect,” Mitchell noted. “AI can help us better understand how and why an exoskeleton paired with spinal stimulation could help with spinal cord injury and function or quality of life.”

Montoya will travel between both coasts to conduct each element of the research before returning to Atlanta full-time. In the process, he’ll build a better knowledge base and exoskeleton training protocol.

This may not have been the path Montoya expected to take when he left Georgia Tech that night in 2012, but it’s a full circle.

“I’m back where my journey paused — this time to push the boundaries of what we believe the human body and spirit can achieve,” he said. “I’m not just walking again. I’m building a future where no one is beyond recovery.”