I received the B.S. degree (2006) in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley and the M.S. (2007) and Ph.D. (2010) degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I joined the University of Michigan as an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Robotics Institute in Fall 2019, and I became the Associate Director for Graduate Education of the Robotics Institute in Fall 2020. I joined the Department of Robotics upon its establishment in July 2022. Prior to joining U-M, I was an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. I was also a Research Scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. I am the Director of the Locomotor Control Systems Laboratory, which conducts research on the control mechanisms of bipedal locomotion with applications to wearable and autonomous robots. Curriculum Vitae
News
- 12/2023: I received a $3 million NIH R01 grant on modeling and control of continuously-varying activities for agile powered prosthetic legs.
- 01/2023: I am the Program Chair of the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), join us in Detroit, MI.
- 09/2021: I received a $1.7 million NIH R01 grant on the design and control of modular powered orthoses for broad patient populations.
- 09/2020: I became Associate Director of Michigan Robotics / Robotics Graduate Chair.
- 08/2020: I received a new NSF grant with collaborators Elliott Rouse and Eric Rombokas.
- 08/2019: I moved to the University of Michigan as Associate Professor with tenure!
- 08/2018: I received a $2.2 million NIH R01 grant to investigate control of agile powered prosthetic legs.
- 08/2017: I received new NSF grants through the DCSD program and National Robotics Initiative 2.0.
- 02/2017: I received the NSF CAREER Award.
- 09/2016: Prof. Kaveh Hamed and I received a NSF grant through the National Robotics Initiative.
- 04/2016: I was elevated to IEEE Senior Member.
- 12/2015: My PhD student Ge Lv won the Best Student Paper Award of IEEE Conf. Decision & Control.
- 10/2015: I joined the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
- 09/2013: I received the 2013 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award ($2.3 million over 5 years) for research in robotic prostheses and orthoses.
- 05/2012: Many thanks to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for supporting my research vision with a $500,000 Career Award at the Scientific Interface.
Research Projects
Research Interests
- Design and control of lower-limb prostheses and orthoses
- Control mechanisms of human locomotion
- Modeling and control of dynamic walking
- Nonlinear control, including energy-based and passivity-based methods
Note to Prospective Students
Funded positions are reserved for admitted PhD students based on availability of funding. Please do not email me requesting a RA position before you have applied to a U-M PhD program. You may notify me when you apply so I can look for your application, but please be patient because the admissions process takes time. Undergraduate or MS research opportunities may be available without financial support; feel free to send a resume and cover letter describing your interests. Unfortunately, I cannot sponsor visas for internships for international students. Note that I cannot reply to all inquiries, as I receive multiple per day.