About Nahian

Employed as:

Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol,  Bristol Robotics Laboratory (2020 to present)

Postdoctoral Fellow, BME, Georgia Tech, USA (May 2018 to November 2019)

Education:

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Ph.D. in Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Italy (2018)

M.Sc. in Mechanical (Intelligent Control & Automation System), Pusan National University (PNU), South Korea (2014)

B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) (2009)

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My primary research goal is to develop a soft, wearable, assistive device that helps elderly people while moving named FREEHAB (an EPSRC project). FREEHAB addresses two critical needs in healthcare provision that currently limit the effectiveness and spread of assistive and rehabilitative technologies (ART): 1. The need for more effective dynamic physiotherapy assessment tools; and 2. The need for low cost, personalised in-home therapy. FREEHAB develops soft, safe and comfortable wearable devices that provide assistance to both the patient and the therapist, increasing the speed and precision of biomechanics diagnosis and enabling self-managed treatment, and effective at-home rehabilitation and assistance. The engineering development is being done at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, nation’s largest hub for multidisciplinary robotics research. My work focuses on the three functional mobility deficits that elderly and disabled people face: i. Standing, 2. Walking and 3. Transfer (e.g. from sitting to standing). FREEHAB brings together experts in soft robotics, occupational therapy and stroke and physiotherapy, as well as medical and patient partners, covering all aspects of research needed to deliver a new generation of soft and safe assistive and rehabilitative technologies and translational devices. 

Before that I was a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA, with Professor Dr. Jaydev P. Desai (Georgia Tech ranks 1 for biomedical engineering: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-biological-biomedical), and my current work is related to biomedical robotics (http://robomed.gatech.edu/). 

I obtained a Ph.D. from the Advanced Robotics Department (ADVR)  (https://www.iit.it/it/people/nahian-rahman) at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Before that, I obtained B.S. in mechanical engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) in 2009 and  M.S. in mechanical engineering (Intelligent Control and Automation System Division) from Pusan National University, South Korea in 2014.

 At IIT, I worked in the Advanced Industrial Automation Lab (AIAL).  My primary research was is to develop Dexterous grasping devices to meet dexterous applications such as in-hand manipulation. 

 I am a former lab member of Instrumentation and Control Lab (http://mclab.me.pusan.ac.kr/). In my master's thesis, I worked on advanced control algorithms such as sliding mode control, SMCSPO. Specifically, I worked on the da vinci surgical robotic system and developed a control law for estimating reaction forces. I am a member of the Korea Robotic Society (KROS), IEEE and AHA (American Heart Association). 

 I like embedded systems, ARM, FPGA (VHDL) programming and physical prototyping. Besides, I do write tutorials for roboticist beginners in Bangla (http://nahiansrobotics.net/). 

My mentors:

Professor Darwin Caldwell (IIT)

Dr. Ferdinando Cannella (IIT)

Dr. Carlo Canali (IIT)

Dr. Luca Carbonari (UNIVPM)

Professor Min Cheol Lee (Pusan National University)

Professor Jaydev P. Desai (Georgia Tech)

Some videos of my work: