18 January 2013 • Friday
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
Joel Burdick, the Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering, received his undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and chemistry from Duke University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He has been with the department of mechanical engineering at the Caltech since May 1988, where he has been the recipient of the NSF Presidential Young Investigator award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and the Feynman fellowship. He has also received the ASCIT Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the GSA Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Education, and received the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2011. In addition to mechanical engineering, he is a core faculty of the control and dynamical systems option, as well as a faculty affiliate in the options of bioengineering (BE) and computational and neural systems (CNS). His research interests lie mainly in the areas of robotics, kinematics, and mechanical systems. Current research interests include sensor based robot motion planning, multi-fingered robotic hand manipulation, robotic mobility, and rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries.