Speakers & Organizers

Speakers

Shuo-Hsiu (James) Chang, PT, PhD, MBA, UT Health, TIRR Memorial Hermann

Dr. Chang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and a scientist and administrative director of the NeuroRecovery Research Center at TIRR Memorial Hermann. A physical therapist from Taiwan, he received his master’s and doctoral degrees in human movement science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA in Healthcare at George Washington University. In 2005, he was awarded a Fellowship in Geriatric Research Award from the American Physical Therapy Association Section on Geriatrics for significant contributions to geriatric research. As a human movement specialist, his research and clinical interests include rehabilitation technologies and neuromotor recovery. Dr. Chang’s current research focuses on the effects and underlying mechanisms of robotic-assisted rehabilitation and neuromuscular modulation on mobility and community integration.

Monica Malvezzi, PhD, Universita di Siena

Monica Malvezzi received the Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1999 and the Ph.D. degree in applied mechanics from the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, in 2003. From 2002 to 2008, she was a Researcher at the University of Florence, Florence, Italy. From 2008 to 2018, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Siena, Siena, Italy. From 2015 to 2019, she was also a Visiting Scientist with the Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy. She is an Associate Professor of mechanics and mechanism theory with the Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena. She was a PI for the UNISI unit in the H2020 project “INBOTS - Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society” and in the ERASMUS+ project BEREADY. She has authored or co-authored several publications in journals, international conferences, and book chapters. Her research interests include the control of mechanical and mechatronic systems, robotics, haptics, multi-body dynamics, grasping, dexterous manipulation, design and development of wearable devices for rehabilitation and assistance. Dr. Malvezzi serves as a Member of the editorial/organizing board of international conferences and journals in robotics and mechanics.

Richard Nuckols, PhD, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Dr. Nuckols is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Prior to joining the department in January of 2024, Richard was an assistant professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a post-doctoral research associate at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science. Richard received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and NC State University. Richard’s research aims to bridge the gap between human biomechanics and wearable robotics with the goal of assisting and rehabilitating functional movement. An important aspect of this work is physiological sensing that supports assistive technologies that can be tailored to the needs of the user and adapt with task demands. Richard’s research has shown how ultrasound sensing can take information from muscle contractions to better understand and control the effect of wearable robots.

Maegan Tucker, PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Tucker is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech, completing her PhD in the Mechanical and Civil Engineering Department at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her research is centered around developing systematic methods of achieving stable, robust, and natural bipedal locomotion on lower-body assistive devices, as well as developing human-in-the-loop methods to customize the experimental locomotion based on subjective user feedback. Specifically, Maegan’s research has been applied towards achieving dynamically stable crutch-less exoskeleton locomotion for individuals with complete motor paraplegia on the Atalante lower-body exoskeleton.

Organizers

Janelle P. Clark, Postdoctoral Researcher, NERVE Center, HRI Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Huanbo Sun, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faboratory Lab, Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University

Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, Associate Professor, Faboratory Lab, Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University

Holly Yanco, Chair, Professor, Distinguished University Professor, NERVE Center Director, HRI Lab, Minor School of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell