Open Positions If you are interested in joining the lab, please visit this page for more information.
Brenna Argall, PhD
Lab Director
Dr. Argall is a professor of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Northwestern University. She is founder and director of the assistive & rehabilitation robotics laboratory (argallab) at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), the nation’s premier rehabilitation hospital. The mission of the argallab is to advance human ability, by leveraging robotics autonomy.
Argall is an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and was named one of the 40 under 40 by Crain’s Chicago Business. Her Ph.D. in Robotics (2009) was received from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where she was a member of the CORAL Research Group. Her B.S. in Mathematics (2002) also was received from Carnegie Mellon, where she minored in Music and Biological Sciences. Prior to joining Northwestern and RIC, she was a postdoctoral fellow (2009-2011) in the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Prior to graduate school she held a Computational Biology position in the Laboratory of Brain & Cognition at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). More recently (2019) she was a visiting Research Fellow at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland.
Personal website, LinkedIn, and Email contact: brenna.argall at northwestern.edu
Students
Demiana Barsoum
PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Demiana Barsoum a doctoral student at Northwestern University. She graduated from The University of Tennessee—Knoxville in 2022 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Mathematics. In her first year of undergrad she worked on a project with a powered wheelchair to design a detachable shopping cart. She has also done research in the field of additive manufacturing using Direct Ink Writing (DIW) to work on a project with Honeywell to make stronger, lighter material in sandwich structures. Also, she has interned at a manufacturing company working with 3D modeling and quality control. She became very interested in robotics and controls after taking a system dynamics and controls class in undergrad.
Email contact: demianabarsoum2027 at u.northwestern.edu
Larisa Loke
PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Larisa is a doctoral student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Northwestern University. She attended Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from 2016 to 2020 and graduated with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering. During this time, she worked on short research projects in the Rehabilitation Research Institution of Singapore under the supervision of Prof. Ang Wei Tech. One project was improving a balance trainer for the elderly, and another was a force sensor design to monitor activities of daily living. In 2019, she did her final year thesis project at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where she worked in Dr. John M. Dolan’s lab. Her research project investigated the use of synthetic data to train CNNs for detection of rare traffic signs for applications in autonomous driving.
Email contact: larisaycl at u.northwestern.edu
Fiona Neylon
PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Fiona is a doctoral student in the Mechanical Engineering department at Northwestern University. She attended the University of Notre Dame from 2018 to 2022 and graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. During this time, she worked in a microbiology research lab studying bacteria swarming. Fiona first joined the lab in the Fall of 2022. Her research interests lie in human-robot interaction, specifically in the medical and rehabilitation sphere. She aims to develop tools clinicians and patients can use to improve overall quality of life.
Email contact: fionaneylon2027 at northwestern.edu
Kyle Puckett
PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Kyle Puckett is a doctoral student in the Mechanical Engineering department at Northwestern University. He attended Washington University in St. Louis from 2020 to 2024 and graduated with a B.S. in Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering) and a B.S. in Computer Science while also representing WashU’s Varsity Men’s Cross Country and Track & Field NCAA Programs. During this time, Kyle worked in an applied biomechanics lab aiding research in the biomechanical and physiological effects of lower limb prostheses and exoskeletons on walking and running. Kyle’s research interests primarily lie in developing rehabilitative robotics and a robotic transfemoral prosthesis to improve overall quality of life.
Email contact: kylepuckett2029 at u.northwestern.edu
Andrew Thompson, MS
PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Andrew is a doctoral candidate in the Mechanical Engineering department at Northwestern University. He received his B.S. in Physics alongside a B.A. in Folklore & Ethnomusicology from Indiana University in 2017. In 2019, he received an M.S. in Robotics from Northwestern University. During his Master’s, he worked on projects involving gait dynamics for legged machines, the design and fabrication of soft actuators, and the development of a novel SEA for eventual use in rehabilitative exoskeletons. Andrew’s research interests are primarily focused with the design and analysis of joint human-robot systems with an emphasis on addressing the user at their particular level of need.
Email contact: andrewthompson2019 at u.northwestern.edu
Michael Young, MS
PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Michael is a doctoral student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Northwestern University. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2013 and 2016, respectively. During his Master’s, he simultaneously worked in the TEES Division of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization where he supported the commercialization of research-based technologies. Michael is also cofounder of LifeMotion Technologies, a startup looking to help restore mouth function to oral cancer survivors using a robotic technology. His current research interest lies in the development of assistive and rehabilitative robotic technologies, with special interest in shared autonomy between robot and user.
Personal website and Email contact: michaelyoung.aero at gmail.com
Zhaohan Sun
Undergraduate Student, Mechanical Engineering
Zhaohan Sun is an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at Northwestern University. As a sophomore, he joined the lab to work on a directly-mounted wireless mode display for the JACO robotic arm. Independently during his Freshman and Sophomore years, he developed an orthotic for foot drop and designed a magnetic necklace clasp for individuals with limited fine motor control. Zhaohan’s research interests primarily lie in advancing robotic systems to enhance the quality of life for patients.
Email contact: zhaohansun2026 at u.northwestern.edu
Staff
Stacie Brown
Project Administrator, Mechanical Engineering
Stacie Brown is a Project Administrator at Northwestern University who draws from a diverse background in technology and design. Her journey includes owning a freelance web and graphic design business, balancing responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom, and working as a specialized Software Engineer in the financial services industry. These experiences equip her with a rich skill set that she applies effectively in her role at Northwestern. She is the project manager for Project DRIVE, led by Northwestern and a participant in the NSF Convergence Accelerator program.
Email contact: stacie.brown at northwestern.edu
Joel Goh, MS
Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineering
Joel is a Research Engineer at Northwestern University. Joel holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science from Northwestern University. Joel joined the lab as a sophomore and worked on Project DRIVE until graduation; he decided to stay at the lab because of his interest in human-robot collaboration and shared autonomy to help make medical devices more accessible. His research focuses on improving autonomy in powered wheelchairs to help users safely maneuver in spatially restricted environments and increase the accessibility of powered wheelchairs.
Email contact: joelgoh2024 at u.northwestern.edu
Corinne Fischer, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Cori Fischer graduated in 2023 with her master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from Gannon University. In 2022, while still in grad school, Cori was left with paraplegia, due to a tethered spinal cord. Despite this obstacle, she continued with her graduate program while still learning to navigate life in a wheelchair. She has been an intern for Trend-Able for more than 5 years, creating and writing blogs on disability products and topics for those living with physical disabilities. She also serves as a board member and patient advocate for Student Mentorship Education Research Fellowship (SMERF). This nonprofit focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of neurosurgery. Currently, Cori is an OT at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in the Assistive Technology department, and in Dr. Argall’s Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics Lab working on the project Robot Machine Learning for Human Motor Learning (NIH R01-EB024058). Through her experiences and career, she aspires to provide others with creative problem-solving, out-of-the-box thinking, hope, encouragement, and advocacy that she has experienced and learned throughout her care.
Email contact: cfischer04 at sralab.org
Rachel Kalvakota, OTD, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Rachel Kravitt OTD, OTR/L is an occupational therapist based at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Rachel holds a Doctorate of Occupational Therapy from the Washington University School of Medicine. Working in the field for over 10 years, her passion for being a clinical occupational therapist is only matched by her passion for research. Rachel has a particular clinical expertise in assistive technology, as she is a part of the Tech Center at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Rachel’s research involvement includes a project funded by a grant she was awarded through the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and research involving conditions such as stroke and spinal cord injury, in addition to the argallab project Robot Machine Learning for Human Motor Learning (NIH R01-EB024058).
Email contact: rkalvakota at sralab.org
Alumni
Postdoctoral Fellows
Ahmetcan Erdogan, PhD
Graduate Students
Alexander Broad, PhD
Deepak Gopinath, PhD
Siddarth Jain, PhD
Mahdieh Nejati Javaremi, PhD
Jongmin Lee, MS
Temgensen Gebrekristos, MS
Vishwajeet Karmarkar, MS
Christopher Miller, MS
Pascal Egli, MS
Matthew Derry, MS
Rintaroh Shima, MS
Ava Zahedi, MS
Yuming (Tim) Jin, MS
Senthil Palanisamy, MS
Musheng He, MS
Luxi Huang, MS
Ruotong Jia, MS
Miaoding Dai, MS
William (Shanhe) Wang, MS
Nate Kaiser, MS
Abishek Patel, MS
Zhu Chen, MS
Aditya Goil, MS
Undergraduate Students
Lucy Ammon
Max McCune
Joel Goh
Kevin Monjarrez
Dan Yang
Stephanie Ma
Sisilia Sinaga
Juliet Ablaza
Christopher Lindland
Finlay Lau
Alexander Puce
Di Wu
Biraj Parikh
Abenezer Mekete
William Su
William (Clay) Surmier
Marc Gyongyosi
Christian Ingham
Brian Zhan
Katherine Lin
Bryanna Yeh
Samuel Schlesinger
Colin Barnwell
Seth McCammon
David McDonald
Luke Olney
Taiwon Chung
Paul Lam
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