Lab Members

Material Robotics Lab Members

Professor Sheila Russo

Prof. Sheila Russo is the founder and director of the Material Robotics Laboratory at Boston University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research interests include medical and surgical robotics, soft robotics, origami-inspired mechanisms, sensing and actuation, and meso- and micro-scale manufacturing techniques. In 2020, she received the NIH Trailblazer Award for New and Early Stage Investigators.
She received her PhD from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy in 2014. She completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in 2017. Prof. Russo is also the co-founder and co-director of the Soft Materials Processing Core (SMPC) Lab at BU and she holds appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. She is also part of the Center for Information & Systems Engineering (CISE) and the Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering at Boston University.

Postdoctoral researcher

Yitong Lu, PhD – LinkedIn

Ayhan Aktas, PhD – LinkedIn

Mustafa Mete, PhD – LinkedIn

PhD students

Daniel Van Lewen – LinkedIn

Daniel Van Lewen is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. His research interests include soft robotics, medical robotics, and origami-inspired mechanisms.

Hun Chan (Bryan) Lee – LinkedIn

Hun Chan (Bryan) Lee is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He received both a B.S. and an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. Prior to joining MRL, he worked in the surgical imaging systems industry in Korea. His research interests include soft robotics, soft-rigid hybrid mechanisms, and laser steering.

Viola Del Bono – LinkedIn

Viola Del Bono is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. She received a B.S degree and an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy. Prior to joining MRL, she was a research fellow at the The BioRobotics Institute at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy) working in the Soft Mechatronics for Biorobotics Lab. Her research interests include medical robotics, soft robotics, sensing for medical applications.

Franco Juliá Wise – LinkedIn

Franco Julia Wise is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He received a B.S degree in Mechanical Engineering at NYU. Before joining the MRL, he was working within the robotics industry sector in addition to obtaining a Masters degree from Boston University in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are medical robotics, soft robotics, soft optical sensing, and phantom medical testing setups.

Kamin Palkawong Na Ayuddhaya – LinkedIn

Kamin Palkawong is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He is a recipient of the Thai Government Fellowship. He obtained a B.S degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Electrical Engineering, and an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University. His research interests include medical devices, soft sensors, and stretchable electronics.

Chae Woo Lim – LinkedIn

Chae Woo is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He is a recipient of the NSF GRFP. He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan with minors in Computer Science and Space Sciences and Engineering, and a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. His research interests include medical robotics, soft robotics, and bioinspired robotics.

Master students

Hyunje Cho

Undergraduate students

Sneha Jos

Krya Patel

Alumni

Click here for a list of past lab members.