- Assistant Professor, Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering
- Joined College of Engineering faculty in 2021
Which research topics are you most interested in?
I’m most interested in neural prosthetics and neural rehabilitation. By implementing brain-machine interfaces, we can use the brain as a pathway for disabled patients to make connections between the body and external devices.
There are many people who become disabled due to a stroke, cancer or other medical condition. It’s a big challenge for them to live independently. I’m interested in helping them regain their independence through the use of novel technologies.
What technology are you excited to use in your lab?
As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley, I worked with a patient who was a quadriplegic. Through the use of a brain implant, he could move a computer cursor and operate a robotic arm. I would like to use the dimensionality of the non-invasive physiological signal, which may require having sensors on the scalp to collect brain activity or on the muscles to evaluate muscle activity.
These signals could be used to communicate with robotics. The challenge is that a robotic arm or assisted device has many degrees of movement and physiological signals are usually very noisy and limited in the range of motion it can control. I’m hoping that by using control systems and artificial intelligence, we can increase the range of motion to assist disabled patients in reaching, grasping and returning tasks.
Who would you like to collaborate with on your research?
Because this research crosses into applied neuroscience, robotics and artificial intelligence, I hope to collaborate with other professors at URI, industry leaders and possibly Brown University’s medical school.
What do you like most about working at the URI College of Engineering?
Since I started working here in September 2021, I’ve seen a lot of collaboration between the professors. I’ve also seen a lot of interest and motivation among the students to work on research that would help people who are disabled. Because the research I’m working on would require multidisciplinary teams and collaboration, I see a lot of opportunity among the professors and students to make that happen.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I love to go hiking. I find it relaxing, whether it’s a short hike or a long hike taking 8 to 10 hours.