Lab News

04/2021 - Soft Robotics Mechanotherapy Leg Wrap and Textile-Based Capacitive Strain Sensor are featured in the Cornell Fashion in Transit exhibit.

07/2019 - The Soft Robotic Glove project is featured as part of the Nature Exhibition in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. Read more...

03/2018 – Harvard’s Office of Technology Development announce a licensing agreement with HoliStick Medical, a Paris-based startup, for a light reflecting catheter developed in the lab in collaboration with Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and MIT.

03/2018 – Josh Gafford successfully defended his PhD thesis!

02/2018 – Ye Ding and Myunghee Kim et al.'s work on human in the loop optimization of control parameters for a soft exosuit, a collaboration with Scott Kuindersma, is published in Science Robotics.

01/2018 – Ye Ding successfully defended his PhD thesis!

07/2017 – Louis Awad and Jaehyun Bae et al.'s work on a soft exosuit that improves walking in stroke patients is published in Science Translational Medicine.

05/2017 – Giuk Lee, Jinsoo Kim, and Fausto Panizzolo et al.'s work on reducing the metabolic cost of running with a tethered soft exosuit is published in Science Robotics.

01/2017 – Brendan Quinlivan and Sangjun Lee et al.'s paper on assistance magnitude vs. metabolic cost reductions with a multi-articular soft exosuit is featured on the online cover of Science Robotics.

01/2017 – Ellen Roche et al.'s work on a soft robotic sleeve for supporting heart function is featured on the cover of Science Translational Medicine.

11/2016 – Seun Araromi gives a talk on stretchable compliant pressure transducers at the IEEE Sensors 2016 conference in Orlando, Florida.

10/2016 – Vanessa Sanchez and Rachael Granberry present posters and the 2016 Fiber Society Fall Meeting and Technical Conference, at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

10/2016 – Our paper on the effect of timing of hip extension assistance during loaded walking with a soft exosuit is featured on the home page of the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation (JNER).

06/2016 – Congratulations to Sheila Russo for winning the best poster award at the 9th Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics!05/2016 – Congratulations to Erika Zurawski who will begin a Physical Therapy program at the University of Toronto this summer! 

05/2016 – Congratulations to Philippe Malcolm who will become an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomechanics at University of Nebraska Omaha in January 2017!

05/2016 – The lab will collaborate with ReWalk Robotics to further develop our soft exosuit technologies for assisting people with lower limb disabilities.

05/2016 – Our multi-joint soft exosuit paper has been published in JNER demonstrating a 7% reduction in metabolic cost with an autonomous wearable robot.

04/2016 – Congratulations to Rachael Granberry who will begin a Master's program in Apparel Design at the University of Minnesota in September 2016!

04/2016 – Congratulations to Colette Abah who will begin a PhD program in the department of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University in September 2016!

04/2016 – Congratulations to Kevin Galloway who will become a Research Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University in September 2016!

04/2016 – Congratulations to Louis Awad who will become an Associate Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute in September 2016!

04/2016 – Congratulations to Chris Siviy on being awarded an NSF graduate research fellowship!

03/2016 – Congratulations to Denise Martineli Rossi for winning 1st place in the Graduate Poster Competition at the Brazilian Graduate Student Conference (BRASCON)!

03/2016 – Congratulations to Louis Awad who will join the faculty at Boston University as an Assistant Professor in the College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College starting September 2016!

03/2016 – Congratulations to Josh Gafford on making the cover of IEEE Sensors for his work done in collaboration with Rob Wood!

03/2016 – Congratulations to Chris Siviy on being admitted into the PhD program in the School of Engineering at Harvard!

02/2016 – Congratulations to Jaehyun Bae on passing his qualifying exam!

02/2016 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at WeaRAcon 2016 in Phoenix, AZ

02/2016 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the 4th Arizona State University Rehabilitation Robotics
Workshop in Tempe, AZ

01/2016 – Congratulations to William Whyte, a PhD student with Dr. Garry Duffy's team, for being awarded the prize for best poster/oral presentation in the Early Stage Research category at the 22nd Bioengineering in Ireland conference in Galway, Ireland!

12/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the Boston Action Club at Northeastern University

11/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the Materials Research Society in Boston

11/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the National Science Foundation, Cyber Physical Systems PI Meeting in Arlington, VA

11/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) PI Meeting in Arlington, VA

11/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the MIT Technology Review Emerging Technologies Conference, MIT Media Lab

10/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at an Applied Mechanics Seminar at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

10/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at Mass Robotics in Boston

10/2015 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan

09/2015 – Former lab member Ellen Roche has a cover article in Science Translational Medicine for work done in collaboration with Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital

09/2015 – Prof Walsh gives a Keynote Talk at the Singapore Scientific Conference 2015

08/2015 – Prof Walsh is named as one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators under 35 2015

08/2015 – Former lab member Panagiotis Polygerinos and other lab members win Best Paper at the 2015 International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics in Singapore for work on a soft robotic glove to assist patients with activities of daily living

08/2015 – Jaehyun Bae and other lab members received the Runner-Up Award for Best Paper at the 2015 International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics in Singapore for a medical exosuit for post-stroke gait assistance

08/2015 – Congratulations to Donal Holland who will join the faculty at University College Dublin in Ireland as an Assistant Professor!

08/2015 – Markus Horvath, Ellen Roche and Brendan Quinlivan give talks at the 2015 ASME International Design Engineering and Technical Conference in Boston on their work on soft robotics and wearable robotics

07/2015 – Prof Walsh gives a talk on the soft exosuit at the Dynamic Walking Conference at Ohio State University

07/2015 – Fionnuala Connolly gives a talk on soft fiber-reinforced actuators at the European Solid Mechanics Conference in Madrid

06/2015 – Josh Gafford gives a workshop talk on “New Possibilities for Surgical Robotic End-Effectors” at the 5th annual Hamlyn Symposium

06/2015 – Congratulations to Ellen Roche who will join the faculty at MIT as an Assistant Prof. in Mechanical Engineering/IMES in 2017!

06/2015 – Louis Awad is awarded an American Heart Association post-doctoral fellowship, congratulations!

05/2015 – Fausto Panizzolo gives a talk on soft wearable robotics at TEDx Padova

05/2015 – Emily Rogers (S.B. Biomedical Engineering), advised by Donal Holland & Panagiotis Polygerinos, is one of 4 students to win the SEAS Dean's Award for Outstanding Senior Engineering Project

05/2015 – Congratulations to Sam Song who will join the faculty at the University of Central Florida as an Associate Professor!

04/2015 – Congratulations to Ellen Roche for successfully defending her PhD thesis!

04/2015 – Functional Apparel Designer, Diana Wagner gives talk on Soft Wearable Robotics at RISD

04/2015 – Congratulations to Panagiotis Polygerinos who will join the faculty at Arizona State University in the Fulton Schools of Engineering!

04/2015 – Congratulations to Alan Asbeck who will join the faculty at Virginia Tech as an Assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering!

03/2015 – Ellen Roche gives a talk on the cardiac repair project at MIT IMES

03/2015 – Congratulations to Prof Walsh for receiving the National Science Foundation CAREER Award!

01/2015 – Prof Walsh gives keynote speech at Bioengineering In Ireland Conference

12/2014 – Soft Exosuit project highlighted on the cover of IEEE Robotics and Automation magazine

12/2014 – Soft Robotics Toolkit announces 2015 competition in soft robotics - (http://softroboticstoolkit.com/soft-robotics-awards-2015)

12/2014 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at MAE Colloquium at Cornell University

10/2014 – Congratulations to Soft Exosuit team for winning Robotics Business Review Next Generation Game Changer Award 

09/2014 – Soft Robotics Toolkit site launches (http://softroboticstoolkit.com)

09/2014 – Soft Exosuit team awarded $2.9 million contract from DARPA to continue program

09/2014 – Ellen Roche gives a talk at the Work Progress Meeting for the Cardiac Surgery Department, Boston Childrens Hospital

08/2014 – Ellen Roche gives a talk at the Technical University of Munich

07/2014 – Prof Walsh gives talks on The Soft Robotics Toolkit at workshops at the Robotics, Science, and Systems Conference at Berkeley, CA

07/2014 – Congratulations to Alan Asbeck, Ignacio Galiana, and Stefano De Rossi for being promoted to research staff based on their contributions to the soft exosuit project as postdoctoral researchers

07/2014 – Congratulations to Ellen Roche for winning Best Poster at the Fulbright Science and Technology Fellows Capstone Conference at Carnegie Hall

07/2014 – Congratulations to Panos Polygerinos on being selected as a Wyss Institute Technology Development Fellow

07/2014 – Prof Walsh gives a talk in the Workshop on Lower Limb Exoskeletons at the 2014 World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston

07/2014 – Translational research program grant at Childrens hospital awarded to members of the lab

06/2014 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at the Workshop on Wearable Robotics for Motion Assistance and Rehabilitation at ICRA 2014 in Hong Kong.

06/2014 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at the Workshop on Lower Limb Exoskeletons for Rehabilitation and Assistance at ICRA 2014 in Hong Kong.

06/2014 – Congratulations to Ellen Roche for winning an AHA pre-doctoral fellowship

06/2014 – Graduate students Joshua Gafford and Ye Ding present their work at ICRA 2014 in Hong Kong

06/2014 Judah Folkman auditorium research day prize awarded to collaborative team from lab and Childrens Hospital

05/2014 – Congratulations to undergraduate student Matt Yarri on being awarded a Hoopes Prize for his senior thesis work

05/2014 – Congratulations to Prof. Walsh on being one of the recipients of the inaugural Star Family Challenge

05/2014 – Congratulations to the Walsh and Mooney labs for being one of the winners of the Wyss Institute Director’s Challenge

05/2014 – Welcome new lab member Markus Horvath visiting from TU Munich!

05/2014 – Congratulations to postdoc Zheng Wang on starting as an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University!

04/2014 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk in a Workshop on Human Dynamics at the 40th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference in Boston

04/2014 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the Human 2.0: augmentation and regeneration workshop organized by the Stanford Biodesign Program student group at Stanford University.

04/2014 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University.

04/2014 – Congratulations to Josh Gafford for winning the 3-in-5 Competition, Grand Prize in the Emerging Medical Innovation Valuation Competition, and 3rd Place in the International Student Design Showcase at DMD 2014!

04/2014 – Congratulations to incoming graduate students Peter York and Brendan Quinlivan on receiving NSF fellowships

02/2014 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the MIT CSAIL Robotics Seminar Series in Cambridge

02/2014 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the National Science Foundation Workshop on Research Frontiers in Medical Cyber-Physical Systems in Arlington, Virginia.

01/2014 – Ellen Roche gives a talk on biomaterials for delivering therapies to the heart at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation 9th International Conference on Cell Therapy and Cardiovascular Disease in New York

11/2013 – Ellen Roche gives a talk on biomaterials for delivering therapies to the heart at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Dallas, Texas

11/2013 – Joshua Gafford and Panos Polygerinos present their work on smart medical devices and soft robotics at IROS 2013

11/2013 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the Workshop on Soft Technologies for Wearable Robots at IROS in Tokyo

10/2013 – Prof Walsh gives an invited Distinguished Lecture in Robotics, Systems, and Control at ETH, Zurich

09/2013 – Prof Walsh gives an invited talk at the North East Robotics Colloquium at Harvard

09/2013 – Ellen Roche and Panos Polygerinos present posters at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston

09/2013 – Congratulations to Ellen Roche on winning first place award for the 2013 Mimics Innovation Award for Engineering on Anatomy for Cardiovascular Applications

08/2013 – Ellen Roche gives a talk at the Mimics Cardiovascular Symposium in Minnesota

08/2013 – Congratulations to Paul Loschak from the Biorobotics Lab for winning the first place award in the 2013 ASME Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition for the Cranial Drill

08/2013 – Congratulations to Prof Walsh and the Cranial Drilling team for winning the Freduenstein/GM Young Investigator Award at the 2013 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference

08/2013 – Joshua Gafford, Paul Loschak, Faye Wu, and Steven Obiajulu give talks at the 2013 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference in Portland, Oregan.

07/2013 – Alan Asbeck, Patrick Aubin, and Prof Walsh give presentations on wearable robotics at the International Conference on Wearable Robotics (ICORR)

07/2013 – Arne Menz, Panos Polygerinos, Yigit Menguc, and Prof Walsh present talks and posters at the first International Workshop on Soft Robotics and Morphological Computation

07/2013  Translational research program grant at Childrens hospital awarded to members of the lab

06/2013 – Donal Holland presents his research on student needs in project based design courses at the 2013 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference

06/2013 – Donal Holland presents his research at the 9th International CDIO Conference

06/2013 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at a Boot Camp for the NSF-IGERT program on Soft Material Robotics at Tufts University in Medford

05/2013 – Yigit Menguc and Prof. Walsh present interactive posters on soft wearable robots at the 2013 International Conference on Robotics and Automation

05/2013 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at Innovation Grad Rounds at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston

04/2013 – Prof Walsh speaks on a panel on Medical Device Fellows program at the Design of Medical Devices Conference in Minnesota

04/2013 – Prof Walsh speaks at the Third Annual IDEAS Workshop on Surgical Robotics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston

04/2013 – Congratulations to ES227 teams on winning first place in the International Student Design Showcase and the Three in Five Competition at the 2013 Design of Medical Devices Conference in Minnesota

04/2013 – Congratulations to the ES227 Cranial Drilling team on winning a NCIIA E-team grant to further their project

10/2012 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at the Harvard Catalyst Medical Device Development Workshop at Harvard Medical School in Boston

10/2012 – Prof Walsh is the invited keynote speaker at the Cambridge Consultants Surgical Workshop: Disrupting the Operation: The Surgical Landscape in 2030 in Cambridge.

10/2012 – Prof Walsh gives a talk on wearable robotics at a Cerebral Palsy Workshop at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston

10/2012 – Prof Walsh gives a talk at the Health in South Asia Conference at Harvard University in Cambridge

06/2012 – Michael Wehner presents work on wearable robotics at the International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob)

05/2012 – Prof Walsh presents lab work on image-guided robotics at the 2012 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)