Speakers

2021

Past Speakers

Michael Borich, PT, DPT, Ph.D.

Emory Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine
Georgia Tech Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering
Emeory Univesrity - Georgia Tech

Dr. Michael Borich received is BS, BPT, and his PhD all from the University of Minnesota. He works in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Engineering here at Georgia Tech as an associate professor and at Emory University as an associate professor in their department of rehabilitation medicine as well as being part of the training faculty for the Neuroscience Graduate Program there. Dr. Borich is a part of numerous memberships and has received many distinguishing honors during both his educational career and professional career.

Dr. Borich’s areas of expertise are in the fields of neuroscience and regenerative medicine. His research interests focus on how to understand the adaptive capabilities of the human nervous system and how to develop innovative rehabilitation for those with neurological disorders, impairments, etc…

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Gregory S. Sawicki, Ph.D.

Associate Professor with appointments in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Tech

Dr. Gregory S. Sawicki is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech with appointments in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Biological Sciences. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University ('99) and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California-Davis ('01). Dr. Sawicki completed his Ph.D. in Human Neuromechanics at the University of Michigan, Ann-Arbor ('07) and was an NIH-funded Post-Doctoral Fellow in Integrative Biology at Brown University ('07-'09). Dr. Sawicki was a faculty member in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill from 2009-2017. In summer of 2017, he joined the faculty at Georgia Tech with appointments in Mechanical Engineering 3/4 and Biological Sciences 1/4.

Dr. Sawicki directs the Human Physiology of Wearable Robotics (PoWeR) laboratory—where the goal is to combine tools from engineering, physiology and neuroscience to discover neuromechanical principles underpinning optimal locomotion performance and apply them to develop lower-limb robotic devices capable of improving both healthy and impaired human locomotion (e.g., for elite athletes, aging baby-boomers, post-stroke community ambulators).

By focusing on the human side of the human-machine interface, Sawicki and his group have begun to create a roadmap for the design of lower-limb robotic exoskeletons that are truly symbiotic---that is, wearable devices that work seamlessly in concert with the underlying physiological systems to facilitate the emergence of augmented human locomotion performance.

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Patricio Vela, Ph.D.

Associate Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Tech

Dr. Patricio Antonio Vela is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at theGeorgia Institute of Technology. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1998 and his doctorate in 2003 at he California Institute of Technology, which is where he did graduate research on geometric nonlinear control and robotics. Dr. Vela came to Georgia Tech as a post-doctoral researcher in computer vision and later joined the ECE faculty in 2005.

Dr. Vela’s research interests revolve around a wide array of topics, including geometric estimation and control, computer vision, applied differential geometry and geometric mechanics, and biologically inspired mechanics. He directs the Intelligent Vision and Automation Lab (IVALab), where research focuses more specifically around algorithms and algorithmic formulations for perception and control with application to robot autonomy. More can be read with the links below.

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Edward Botchwey, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Bioscience
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering
Georgia Tech

Dr. Edward Botchwey first received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Maryland and College  Park and afterwards went on to receive both an ME and a PhD in Materials Science Engineering and Bioengineering from The University of Pennsylvania. He works in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Engineering as an associate professor and is the director of the Laboratory for Immuno-Regenerative Engineering. One of his research presentations involved utilizing biomaterials, single cell analysis, and computational dimensionality reduction algorithms can be utilized to describe enhanced healing capacity in multiple tissue types.

Dr. Botchwey’s research interests include tissue engineering and biomaterials, microvascular growth and remodeling, and stem cell engineering. More can be read about Dr. Botchwey’s research and his lab at their respective sites below along with a short video about one of his research interests.

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Stanislav Emelianov, Ph.D.

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Joseph M. Pettit Chair
Georgia Tech

Dr. Emelianov is a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical &  Computer Engineering. He is affiliated with the Winship Cancer Institute at the Emory University School of Medicine. At Georgia Tech, Dr. Emelianov directs the Ultrasound Imaging and Therapeutics Research Laboratory, where he focuses on the translation of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic instrumentation, along with nanobiotechnology which is used for clinical applications.

Dr. Emelianov’s research interests include medical diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound, molecular and  
functional imaging, image guided therapy and monitoring of treatment outcome, medical devices,  instrumentation, and algorithms, and imaging contrast agents in nanobiotechnology. More can be read about Dr. Emelianov’s research his lab at their respective sites, found below.

Google Scholar Link Lab Website

Future Speakers

3/30 - Raheem Beyah
4/6 - Ayanna Howard 
4/13 - Tequila Harris 
4/20 - Susan Margulies