Research Overview
As a 5th year PhD student in Dr. Gregory Sawicki’s laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I am currently interested in exploring the biomechanics associated with use of lower limb prosthetic and assistive devices. I am currently funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Post-baccalaureate
At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, I worked as a research engineer on studies to understand biomechanical differences between individuals with and without lower limb loss. Specific projects include:
- Evaluating the influence of prosthetic foot stiffness on weighted walking in persons with transtibial (below-knee) amputation
- Understanding differences in trunk and pelvis motion during 90 degree turns across levels of lower limb loss
- Assessing the efficacy of a visual feedback task for reducing impulse (force on ground over time) on one side of the body
- Development of a real-time game for training of trunk-pelvis control using an instrumented wobble chair
The summer after graduating from Brown, I was also an Early Drug Discovery intern at Abbvie. There I screened anti-inflammatory drugs and evaluated antibody trafficking.
Undergraduate
During my time at Brown University, I worked in a number of labs on projects spanning the spectrum of biomedical research.
At the Providence VA Medical Center, I completed my honors thesis and capstone project under the direction of Dr. Susan D’Andrea on the topic of augmented and virtual reality for gait retraining. In particular:
- I compared performance changes of able-bodied individuals as a result of obstacle course training in augmented reality and virtual reality environments
- I evaluated whether scaling of virtual reality obstacle course parameters to user dimensions influenced in-game outcomes
Through the National Institutes of Health Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship Program (BESIP), I worked as a summer intern at Walter Reed. While there my responsibilities included:
- Implementation of a laser guided walking system to generate repeatable “freeform” walking paths
- Assessing differences in the biomechanical strategies used by individuals with and without transtibial amputation during 90 degree turns, 180 degree turns, stopping and starting tasks during walking
As a summer research assistant at the Brown University Advanced Baby Imaging Lab I:
- Assessed differences in brain myelination from MR images in children exposed to smoking and drinking in utero
- Assisted in collecting whole night EEG data to assess changes in brain activity as a result of sleep deprivation in children
As a summer researcher in the Brown-HHMI Summer Scholar Program I:
- Designed a DNA construct to use fruit flies as a model for Charcot-Marie Tooth Disease
- Developed and executed a crossing scheme for generating a line of fruit flies with two mutations associated with ALS
As a student in the year long HHMI Phage Hunters Course I:
- Isolated, enriched, and extracted the DNA of a bacteriophage (bacterial virus) new to science, and annotated the viral genome of a novel bacteriophage.
- Used regulatory elements in bacteriophage genomes as an evolutionary classification scheme