Principal Investigator
Veronica J. Santos, Ph.D.
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Biography: Veronica J. Santos is a Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the UCLA Biomechatronics Lab. She earned her B.S. degree in mechanical engineering with a music minor from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, she was a Quality Engineer and Research and Development Engineer at Guidant Corporation in Santa Clara, CA, specializing in life-saving cardiovascular technology. Dr. Santos earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering with a biometry minor from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in 2004 and 2007, respectively, with Dr. Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas. From 2007 to 2008, she was a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Gerald E. Loeb at the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California, where she worked on a team to develop a novel biomimetic tactile sensor for prosthetic hands. From 2008 to 2014, Dr. Santos was an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program at Arizona State University, where she directed the ASU Biomechatronics Lab. She has served as an Editor of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, an Associate Editor of the ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, Editor-in-Chief for the 2020 IEEE Haptics Symposium, and General Co-Chair for the 2022 and 2024 IEEE Haptics Symposia. She currently serves as Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence and Faculty Affairs for the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
Research Interests: grasp and manipulation, hand biomechanics, haptics, human-machine systems, machine learning, machine perception, neural control of movement, prosthetics, robotics, stochastic modeling, tactile sensors
Awards and Honors: Selected for the Defense Science Study Group (2018-2019), for a UCLA Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dept. Teaching Award (2016-2017), for an ASU Young Investigator Award (2014), for two ASU Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Top 5% Teaching Awards (2012, 2013), as a Lindseth Lecturer by the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University (2012), for a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development CAREER Award (2010), and as an attendee at the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium (2010)
UCLA Mechanical & Aerospace Engin. Dept. profile
Google Scholar page
Ph.D. Students
Benjamin Forbes, M.S.
Education:
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2024
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2023
Research Interests: Underwater tactile sensing, teleoperation, umanned underwater vehicles, shared autonomy.
Awards and Honors: SMART Fellowship, 2024 Big Ten Postgraduate Scholarship, 2023 ASME MSEC Design Competition Winner, Big Ten Scholar Athlete
Evan Harber, M.S.
M.S. Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2021
B.S. Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2019
Research Interests: Dynamic rope manipulation, iterative learning control, multimodal tactile sensing.
Awards and Honors: 2024 Amazon Fellowship – Science Hub for Humanity and Artificial Intelligence, ICRA 2022 Outstanding Mechanisms and Design Paper, ISMR 2021 Nominated for Best Paper, CMU Senior Leadership Award, Mellon College of Science Honors, CMU Summer Internship Experience Fund Awardee
Jimmy Penaloza, M.S.
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2023
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2019
Research Interests: Optimal robot control, human robot interaction (HRI), assistive robotics, haptic feedback, sensor fusion, imitation learning.
Awards and Honors: Ford Foundation Fellowship, Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, GEM Foundation Fellowship, Outstanding BS in Mechanical Engineering Co-recipient, Harry M. Showman Prize for Undergraduate Research
Cole Ten, M.S.
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2023
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2019
Research Interests: Human-robot interaction, human dynamics estimation, machine learning, optimal control, robotic perception, computer vision.
Awards and Honors: Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, GEM Foundation Fellowship, Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students 2017 Presentation Award, Dennis Kipperman Community Service Scholarship, James and Lucille Cayton Award, Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society: Betty L. Wong Award
Mumbi Whidby, M.S.
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2024
B.S. Computer Science, Spelman College, 2022
Research Interests: Texture classification in extreme environments, tactile sensing, haptic displays, human-in-the-loop control.
Awards and Honors: Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, Upsilon Phi Epsilon Honor Society, Boeing Scholar
UCLA Biomechatronics Lab 