The Department of Mechanical Engineering is excited to welcome Dr. Edoardo Battaglia as an Assistant Professor this spring. Dr. Battaglia received his Ph.D., M.S. and B.E. from University of Pisa, but also spent time at Arizona State University and Rice University as a visiting scholar. Before joining the U, Dr. Battaglia was a Postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin. His research is on the design of wearable sensing systems and haptic interfaces, with a focus on evaluation with users and human experience, for applications in medical robotics and virtual reality.

“As engineers, we often have a tendency to build excellent but complicated systems that can overwhelm the user” said Dr. Battaglia. “This aspect became particularly evident to me during my work with haptic devices for upper limb prostheses, where users interacted with the new technology in ways that were not anticipated and sometimes confusing once we started moving towards experimental setups that were less controlled and closer to a real world scenario.”

Dr. Battaglia is looking forward to starting is work at the U this spring leading the Human-Centered Haptics and Robotics (h-CHAR) Laboratory, and is very excited to begin collaborations within leading experts from the department and the hospital.

“It is my goal to design new technology that keeps user needs in mind from the very beginning. Being able to connect with people who have experience working in the industry and in the medical field will be invaluable in this pursuit.”

You can find out more on the h-CHAR Laboratory website.