A huge congratulations goes out to Dr. Babak Hejrati, who has accepted an offer to join the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Maine.
From Hamedan, Iran, Hejrati earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, followed by an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from K. N. Toosi University of Technology, both located in Tehran, Iran. For his M.S. thesis, he worked in the “Actuator Laboratory” on impedance control of a pneumatic actuator using fast switching on/off valves.
Advised by University of Utah Mechanical Engineering associate professor Jake Abbott, Hejrati was a member of the University of Utah Robotics Center where in 2016 he earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He was co-advised by School of Computing professor John Hollerbach. His dissertation work involved exploration of the Treadport immersive virtual-reality environment as a gait-rehabilitation device, and the generation of arm-swing during gait rehabilitation.
After defending his dissertation, Hejrati joined Conor Walsh’s Harvard Biodesign Lab at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher.
Hejrati’s interest lie in robotics and control of dynamic systems at the intersection of theory and experiments. He is particularly interested in rehabilitation and assistive-device applications, which will be his continued focus at the University of Maine.