Human Robot Systems Lab

Dr. Mark Price, a postdoctoral researcher in the Departments of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Kinesiology, received the President’s Choice Award at the 2025 American Society for Biomechanics (ASB) Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. The award recognizes the best abstract and poster at the conference. His winning abstract, “Robotic pneumatic shoes elicit adaptations to weight bearing symmetry during walking,” was co-authored with recent mechanical engineering graduate Sarah Szemethy, Prof. Wouter Hoogkamer (Kinesiology), and Prof. Meghan Huber (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering).

Dr. Meghan Huber, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The CAREER Program is a foundation-wide activity that offers NSF awards in support of early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Dr. Meghan Huber and PhD Candidate, Banu Abdikadirova, from the Human Robot Systems Laboratory (HRSL) in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at University of Massachusetts Amherst demonstrated their custom hip exoskeleton system at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), as part of the workshop on State of the Art in Lower-Limb Exoskeletons: Exploring Specificity vs. Generalizability Across Users and Activities.