I am a Product Development Engineer at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (New Zealand) and an Associate of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Biodesign Lab working on soft wearable systems and soft sensors for improving the mobility of individuals with physical disabilities. I hold a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and my doctoral studies focused on the development of wearable exoskeletons for grasping capabilities enhancement.
I am passionate about solving people’s mobility problems with innovative assistive devices and sensors for rehabilitation and assistance during life tasks. During my postdoctoral training, I had the opportunity to lead clinical studies with post-stroke and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients to evaluate a soft assistive device for elbow joint motion that combined novel textile materials and traditional pneumatic systems. I also conducted research on sensors for tracking body performance, employing carbon-fiber-based soft strain sensors to evaluate musculoskeletal health. During my Ph.D. studies, I led the development of open-source, affordable, and modular designs of exoskeleton gloves that won an international open-source hardware design competition, Hackaday Prize 2020, in the assistive devices category.
My current research interests are:
- Development of soft exoskeletons, with novel, modular, and affordable designs for force augmentation of impaired and healthy people.
- Novel materials and manufacturing processes that facilitate the development of wearable systems and sensors.
- Design assistive devices to allow people with impairment to better execute daily life tasks.
- Soft sensors for tracking body activity and improving the performance of athletes during physical training.
- Design of simple and adaptive robotic and bionic hands for robust grasping and dexterous, in-hand manipulation.