Current Members
PhD Students
Erica Waters
Erica Waters is a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her goal is to bring empathetic, intelligent rehabilitation technology out of the lab and into real-world use, particularly in under-served clinical settings. Her graduate research explores how people learn motor skills together in haptic dyads and how control strategies can be designed to enhance both individual recovery and social interaction in rehabilitation.
Erica received her B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee and her M.S. degree in robotics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral NRSA (F31). Her research interests include haptics, controls, physical human-robot interaction, and rehabilitation robotics.
Olaoluwaotan ‘Francis’ Sowande
MEAM
Francis is a mechanical engineering doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab, he has worked in labs at the University of Maryland on topics concerning optimized robotic design, and task planning.
Francis’s research interests lie in robotic design especially in the context of assisting underserved groups. He is excited to use his passion for accessible robotics platforms at the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab.
Patience Yaa Yeboah
Patience Yaa Yeboah is currently a PhD student in the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at the University of Pennsylvania with significant interests in rehabilitation robotics for stroke and spinal cord injury patients. She hopes to develop better rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities in Ghana in some years to come. She received her master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Arizona State University and undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2020 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Following her research interests and the quest to understand how the muscles can compensate
for the lost functions during injuries, Patience worked in the Neural Control of Movement Lab under the supervision of Professor Marco Santello. Some projects Patience has worked on are measuring the muscle strength of stroke patients, mapping muscles activation to force perception during unloading, dexterous finger force control training and developing user centered devices for a cerebral palsy patient.
She is a member of the Model United Nations with keen interests in Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 10. Her active groups during her Masters and Undergraduate degrees were National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Women Engineers and the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Tuan-Anh Nguyen
Tuan-Anh is a PhD student in BioEngineering department at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, Vietnam. He conducted a research internship at LISSI lab at the University of Paris-Est Creteil, France, focusing on modeling and optimal control of a hybrid lower-limb assistive system composed of exoskeleton and functional electric stimulation. In 2020, he became a Vingroup Ph.D Scholar, and he hopes to improve rehabilitation facilities for Vietnamese people in the future. He joins the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab with interests in developing robotic approaches to assist recovery process in individuals with disabilities.
Reem Azar
Reem Azar is a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Lehigh University and her Master’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Reem comes from a diverse research background and has worked on a range of projects, but her research interests have consistently centered on interfacing neuroscience and engineering.
Reem is a T32 trainee in the “Training in Musculoskeletal Research” program and previously served as an R42 diversity supplement awardee, where she contributed to translational research at the intersection of neural recovery and assistive technology. As an individual from diverse backgrounds and a member of the Fontaine Society, Reem supports her lab’s mission to make robotics more affordable and accessible to all populations.
Shafagh Keyvanian
MEAM
shkey@seas.upenn.edu
Shafagh Keyvanian is a Ph.D. Student at University of Pennsylvania, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) department. Her research interests include Rehabilitation robotics, Control theory, and Machine Learning. Her current research is on Autonomous Task-oriented Therapy for individuals with upper-extremities impairments. Her focus is on robot control policies based on Therapist-Patient-Interaction using machine learning techniques.
She received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from K. N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran, and M.Sc. Degree in Automotive Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.
IRB Coordinator
Joana Opong-Duah
IRB Coordinator
Joana.Opong-Duah@pennmedicine.upenn.edu