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Biomechatronics Group Director


       Hugh Herr
Hugh Herr, PhD
hherr [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-419

Research Staff

Chris Barnhart
       Chris Barnhart Chris Barnhart
cbarn [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-095


Bruce Deffenbaugh
       Bruce Deffenbaugh Bruce Deffenbaugh
bd [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-095


Marko Popovic, PhD
Popovic received a BS in physics from Belgrade University (1995), a MSc in physics from Ohio State University (1996) and a PhD in physics from Boston University (2002). In 2001-2002 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University; the same year he joined the MIT Leg Laboratory and the MIT Biomechatronics group. Popovic's expertise is in biomechanics of human movements, control, math and physics. He observed tight regulation of spin angular momentum in human walking, and introduced a new ground reference point called the Centroidal Moment Pivot (CMP) that closely tracks the ZMP during steady state walking (joint work with Prof. Herr, Dr Hofmann and Dr Gowami). He is currently working on a control scheme that modulates whole-body angular momentum to enhance center-of-mass controllability.




       Marko Popovic Marko Popovic
marko [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-421

Jeff Weber
       Jeff Weber Jeff Weber
jaweber [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-095
Personal Webpage


Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows


Samuel Au, PhD
       Samuel Au Samuel Au
kwau [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-054

Aaron Dollar, PhD
       Aaron Dollar Aaron Dollar
adollar [at] mit.edu
Room E15-421
Personal Webpage

Alena Grabowski, PhD
       Alena Grabowski Alena Grabowski
alenag [at] mit.edu
Room E15-419
Personal Webpage

Diana Young, PhD
Young holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Music from The Johns Hopkins University, a Performer's Certificate in Violin from the Peabody Conservatory, and an M.S. (2001) and Ph.D in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT (2007). Throughout her graduate studies at the MIT Media Lab, her primary area of research was expert bowed string (violin, viola, cello, double bass) performance. In order to study the physical dynamics of violin bowing, she designed a playable calibrated measurement system to capture and record primary bowing parameters generated by real players. Other work includes the development of related sensing systems for use in live interactive music performance. The Hyperbow violin bow interface has been used in performance by several professional violinists and has recently adapted for use with cello for ongoing collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music, where Young is an Honorary Research Fellow. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including The Strad magazine, Strings Magazine, The Boston Globe, and New Scientist Podcast series. Research interests include measurement of human motion and the development of interfaces for expression and augmentation.



       Diana Young Diana Young, PhD
young [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-418
Personal Webpage
PhD Candidates

Grant Elliot
       Grant Elliot Grant Elliot
gelliott [at] mit.edu
Room E15-054

Ken Endo
       Ken Endo Ken Endo
kene [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-054
Ernesto C. Martinez
       Ernesto C. Martinez Ernesto C. Martinez
ernesto [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-054

MS Degree Candidates

Michael Eilenberg
       Michael Eilenberg Michael Eilenberg
emichael [at] mit.edu
Room E15-054
Matthew (Todd) Farrell
       Todd Farrell Todd Farrell
mtfarrel [at] mit.edu
Room E15-054
Personal Webpage

Administrative Support Staff


Tesha Myers
      
Tesha Myers Tesha Myers
tmyers [at] media.mit.edu
Room E15-401


Former Members


Sungho Jo, PhD
Sungho Jo received a BS in engineering from school of mechanical&aerospace engieering, Seoul National University, Korea (1999), a MS in mechanical engineering, MIT (2001), and a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science, MIT (2006). Since July 2006, he has been working in the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab. Before joining the media lab, he was affiliated in the Computer Sciene and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT. His research area is computational neural engineering and biomechanics, biomimetic robots and neurorposthetics etc. His current work focuses on designing a human dynamic walking model to explain neurophysiological and biomechanical principles of human locomotion. His recent work investigated the sensorimotor neural control systems of human postural balance and bipedal walking in the sagittal plane.

      
Bhargav Gajjar
      
Andreas Hofmann, PhD
      
Hartmut Geyer, PhD
Hartmut Geyer received a Diploma of Physics degree (2001) and a Ph.D. degree (2005) from the University of Jena, Germany. Since 2006, he holds a Marie-Curie International Outgoing Fellowship of the European Union and, within this fellowship program, currently works as a postdoctoral affiliate in the Biomechatronics Group. His research interests are the mechanical and neuromechanical principles of legged locomotion, and their application to the design and control of legged robots and prosthetic limbs. He has worked on the mechanical principles of legged locomotion from walking to the walk-run transition to running. He has also worked on how legged robots could benefit from these principles when they must cross rough terrain, and on how animals and humans could realize these principles using muscle reflexes. His current research expands on these earlier works. He develops a human locomotion model whose legs are mainly driven by muscle-force reflexes and, together with the researchers of the Biomechatronics Group, works on implementing this model's muscle-reflex dynamics in the control of an active foot prosthesis.

      
Lee Magnusson
      
Waleed A. Farahat, PhD
      
Chanikarn (Mint) Wongviriyawong, SM
      
Ben Aisen, SM
      
Max Berniker, PhD
      
Andrea Chew, SM
      
Danielle Chou, SM
      
Peter Dilworth
      
William (Guillermo) Grand, SM
      
Daniel Paluska
      
Ken Pasch, PhD, PE
Pasch's education includes PhD, SM, and SB degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT. Pasch worked as a senior design engineer in the design and systems integration group at Foster-Miller, Inc. As an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago, he taught undergraduate courses in design and supervised graduate student research in design and control. Pasch also lectured in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, teaching a two-semester, project-based course in machine design. He started Pasch Engineering Design in 1994, and subsequently participated in a variety of commercial and military projects involving electromechanical design, systems integration, control, and analysis. Pasch is inventor on nine US-issued patents and on four US published applications. Currently a research scientist in the Biomechatronics group, Pasch is working on the design of actuators, sensors, and control systems for powered exoskeletons, prostheses, and orthoses.

      
Goutam G. Reddy, SM
      
Benjamin J. Swilling, SM
      
Andrew J. Valiente, SM
      
Conor James Walsh, SM
From his home country of Ireland, Walsh received an undergraduate degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering at Trinity College, Dublin, and was a mechanical engineering graduate student undertaking research in the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab. His research interests were primarily in the area of design and robotics, in particular exoskeleton design. For his master's degree work, Walsh worked with others on developing a robust, low-power, stable and lightweight leg orthosis or exoskeleton design to increase the locomotory endurance of humans. Thus far, Walsh's claim to fame is having presented some class work from a Concept Car Design Workshop to The Edge from U2 in their recording studios in Dublin and hopes that he and the band can collaborate on more cutting edge research in the future.

      


Derek Welcome
      
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