Research Interests

My overarching research theme is automation in embodied (robots) or embedded (sensors) systems. This work is inherently interdisciplinary and bioinspired, frequently incorporates a target application, and leverages my educational background in physics, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Automated Design & Fabrication of Robots

My research vision, summarized as Robots Creating Robots, is to transform the way that robots are designed and fabricated. Building robots via conventional practice requires painstaking design and assembly steps that rely heavily on human intuition and individual expertise. I develop algorithms and fabrication techniques that automate the design and production of customized robots in order to accelerate this process, with the goal of automatically designing robots that "walk out of the printer".

Automated Biological & Ecological Sensing

Understanding biological systems requires observations, yet monitoring free-ranging organisms, including humans, presents technical hurdles that limit the quantity and quality of scientific data, impacting applications ranging from wetland management to eldercare. I design and deploy small, robust, long-lived biosensing instruments that overcome these challenges, with a focus on problems where automation innovations will allow human efforts to scale.