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Principal Investigator
Principal Investigator
Prof. Ryan Halter is a Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Surgery, Geisel School of Medicine. Prof. Halter serves as the Program Area Lead of Biomedical Engineering at Thayer School of Engineering and the Technical Associate Director for the Center for Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence (CPHAI). Prof. Halter is also engaged in translational efforts through startups he has founded and co-founded including RyTek Medical, SynchroHealth, and AssurTek Surgical.
Research Professors
Research Professors
Prof. Ethan Murphy is an assistant professor of engineering at Dartmouth who has worked with Prof. Halter since August 2014. He has a PhD in mathematics from Colorado State University (2007). Prof. Murphy works on a variety of biomedical applications, such as prostate and breast cancer imaging, using physics-based electrical modeling, electrical impedance tomography, data fusion, error analysis, and general computational methods.
Courses at Thayer:
ENGS 57/169: Intermediate Biomedical Engineering (Spring 2026)
Prof. Mike Kokko is an assistant professor of engineering at Dartmouth. Mike returned to academia in 2016 (after just shy of 9 years in industry) with three primary objectives:
To foster his passion for teaching through immersion in postsecondary engineering education
To develop research skills including writing grant applications and scientific manuscripts
To deepen his understanding of applied mathematics and rigorously explore the theoretical underpinnings of engineering science
Research Interests: Surgical Navigation and Intrapoerative Robotic Instrumentation, Modeling and Control of Complex Dynamical Systems, Statistical Estimation and Learning
Courses at Thayer:
Research Scientist
Research Scientist
Ehsan Nasiri, Ph.D.
Ehsan Nasiri, Ph.D.
Ehsan joined the lab in January 2025. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (Mechatronics) from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, and completed his Ph.D. at Stevens Institute of Technology.
For more than ten years, Ehsan worked across various industries—including software development, industrial IT, and medical equipment services—serving as an R&D manager before beginning his doctoral studies. Ehsan's Ph.D. research focused on hybrid force-motion control and telemanipulation strategies in robotic tasks with applications in both surgical and manufacturing domains.
Current Projects: Image-guided robotic surgery procedures for both the TORS and ARPA-H projects.
Research Interests: Surgical robotics, Telemanipulation, Robot Control, Continuum Robots, Industrial Robotic Solutions, Software Development, and AI applications in robotics and space applications.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Postdoctoral Fellows
Yi Zheng, Ph.D.
Yi Zheng, Ph.D.
Yi joined the lab in January 2025. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was advised by Prof. Ann Majewicz Fey. Prior to that, he completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Xi'an Jiaotong University and Boston University.
Yi's research focuses on surgical robotics and navigation, computer vision, and multimodal large models. His ultimate goal is to develop an Intelligent and Universal Assistant for surgeons, enhancing decision-making and improving patient outcomes.
Current Projects: Imaging of critical anatomical structures at depth during robotic surgery.
Research Interests: surgical robotics and navigation, computer vision, and multimodal large models
Allaire joined the lab in 2019 and completed her PhD at the Thayer School of Engineering. During her time at Thayer, she was in the Innovation Program. Allaire currently works at Thayer as a Postdoc.
In her free time she enjoys handcycling, any outdoor activity with her dog, Baloo, playing tenor saxophone with the Upper Valley Community Band, and advocating for improved health care policies with a focus on rare diseases.
Current Projects: Allaire's current project focuses on developing a probe that distinguishes between benign and malignant prostate tissue using Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) for surgical margin assessment in robotic assisted laparoscopic prostatectomies. Allaire is also investigating the use of EIT as a metric for pulmonary function testing in ALS patients.
Research interests: Medical device hardware, surgical robotics, wearables
Ph.D. Students
Ph.D. Students
Sophie joined the lab in 2021 after completing a Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University, where she also competed on the varsity women's soccer team. She is currently is a PhD candidate in the Innovation Program at the Thayer School of Engineering. Outside of the lab, you’ll find Sophie gravel biking, backcountry skiing, cheffing it up, or playing pick up soccer with the grad student group. On March 19, 2026: Dr. Sophie Lloyd successfully defended her thesis, "Development of an intraoperative oral cancer detection device and imaging system." She was awarded her PhD in Spring 2026.
Research Interests: Medical device development, electrical impedance-based tissue characterization, surgical robotics
Zenia is a graduate student in the PhD program at the Thayer School of Engineering. She joined the lab in 2022 after completing her Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Boston University.
Current Projects:
Development of an Impedance-based tool for lung cancer resections.
Sadaf joined the lab in 2023. She is a graduate student in the PhD program at Thayer School of Engineering. She completed her Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at Sheikh Bahei University. Following this experience, she pursued her Masters of Science at Isfahan University of Technology.
Outside of the lab, Sadaf likes Star gazing and reading books, especially self improvement books .
Current Projects:
Sarcopenia: early detection of muscle loss in patients undergoing chemotherapy with registration of EIT and Ultrasound
SEEG: Seizure localization with simultaneous EIT-SEEG electrodes, and brain stimulation combinations with SEEG electrodes.
Fluid shift: detecting fluid shifts in the brain and body with EIT for astronauts during flight in different postures.
Research Interests: Brain science (brain stimulation), Space related research
Riley is a graduate student in the PhD Innovation Program at the Thayer School of Engineering. She graduated from Brown University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. Post-undergrad, she was hired as a Research Engineer for Dr. Tripathi's Lab for Scalable Bioengineering Solutions For Diagnostics and Life Sciences to continue her work in designing and testing a device for tissue sample processing for downstream single cell sequencing.
Current Projects:
Impedance sensing for tissue dissociation for downstream single-cell analysis.
Research Interests: Cellular Biology, Microfluidics, Microfabrication, Medical Device Development
Researchers
Researchers
Safina Suratwala is a Clinical Engineering Research Assistant focusing on clinical data collection for cancer detection studies using Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). She holds a Master’s degree in Medical Device and Diagnostic Engineering from the University of Southern California, providing her with a strong foundation in biomedical engineering and regulatory science. In addition to her lab role, she also works part-time as a Biomedical Engineer for RyTek Medical. She has gained valuable hands-on experience in case scheduling, data collection, and patient interactions, ensuring smooth and accurate execution of clinical studies.
In her free time, Safina plays badminton, she enjoys cooking and reading, loves music and dancing.
Current Projects: Evaluating the performance of classification models in predicting the interface using data from impedance sensing dental drill in a cadaver model.
Topics of Interest: Data Visualization, Machine Learning, Hardware design, Signal Processing.
Undergraduate Researchers
Undergraduate Researchers
Molly Reichmuth, Class of 2027
Mentor: Zenia Valdiviezo
Muneeb Chaudhary, Class of 2027
Mentor: Sophie Lloyd
Principal Investigators and Collaborators
Principal Investigators and Collaborators
Associate Professor of Surgery
Chief, Section of Otolaryngology, Audiology & Maxillofacial Surgery
Adjunct Associate Professor of Engineering
NIH Bibliography
Professor of Medicine
Director, Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory at Dartmouth
Adjunct Professor, Thayer School of Engineering
Interim Chair, Department of Radiology
Director, Division of Neuroradiology
Associate Professor of Radiology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth
Associate Professor of Neurology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth
Visiting Student Researchers
Visiting Student Researchers
Michaela Geffert, MS
Michaela Geffert, MS
Michaela graduated from RIT with a bachelors in BME and a masters in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. She is currently working as clinical research coordinator within the Otolaryngology department at DHMC.
DHMC Summer Internship Program 2024
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