If you came here looking for information on FoamBot, please follow this link to ModLab's website in the University of Pennsylvania.
I am both a visiting assistant professor in University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where I will be starting to teach fall of 2012, and a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with two labs at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS): Prof. Mark Yim's ModLab modular robotics laboratory and Prof. Dan Koditschek's Kod*Lab. Both these labs belong to the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab.
My research focuses on the role of mechanical dynamics in the control of animal and robot motion. I hope to identify, model and reproduce the strategies animals use to combine mechanical and neural control for interacting with physical objects. My approach has been to reverse engineer whole-system properties of the animals through measurement of their closed-loop interactions with the environment. I apply the ideas and principles derived in the form of robotic devices and biomimetic design methods that embody some of the desirable features observed in the animal.
Previously, I was a graduate student in Berkeley's Integrative Biology Department, where my adviser was Prof. Robert Full of the PolyPEDAL Lab. In a previous life I was Chief Architect at Harmonic Lightwaves, Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT).