Research for me is a systematic process of creating knowledge based on available knowledge. I believe that a good researcher unites proactive effort; identifies and understands the core research problem; learns to overcome obstacles and approaches problems from unique perspectives; has a long term vision and works on short term goals to accomplish that vision; collaborates with other researchers in the lab, department and universities.

My research interests encompass but are not limited to haptics, virtual reality, biomechanics and their applications in the fields of sports, education, prosthetics and rehabilitation. Specifically, I am driven to investigate the areas of: haptics in stroke rehabilitation, enhancing the current state of robotic rehabilitation, virtual reality based environments integrated with haptic feedback to improve sports, rehabilitation and a real-time haptic interaction for better learning in remote environments.

My master thesis work is focused on developing a prototype which shows the potential of haptics in remote physiotherapy. For my thesis, I am focusing on stroke patients with dysfunctional upper limbs Essentially, I am answering the question “Can remote haptics play a role in remote physiotherapy of elbow flexion-extension in stroke patients of grade 1 to 2.5 on the MMT scale?’’ This research has potentially wide-reaching implications ranging from teaching motor skills virtually to assessment of patients over a distance. Moreover, such a system can play a role in real-time operations with applications from motor-skill learning to surgeries and gaming in virtual reality. During my thesis, I have been collaborating with various researchers from TU Delft, Senseglove, Rotterdam Medical Center, LUMC, Camille Moussette from Apple and Prashant Gade who is director of Inali foundation.

I am a graduate researcher at the Delft Haptics Lab and have done multiple research projects. Those include: A systematic review on ‘Haptic technology in sports training, performance enhancement and rehabilitation.’, ‘the conceptualization of a finger exoskeleton for stroke patients to help in rehabilitation of the grasping movement’. As a graduate researcher at the TU Delft Sports Engineering institute, I looked at the relationship between the magnitude, location of off-center impacts during a tennis serve and wrist flexors, extensors. During my bachelor’s, I worked with the Biomechanical Engineering research group on multiple small projects like: ‘gait analysis of patients with cerebral palsy’ and motion capture during the pulling of the chord in archery. My bachelor thesis was targeted at saving the riders during motorbike accidents. We demonstrated a proof of concept which won many accolades and an Indian patent on the same. (Indian Patent Number: 201821025105)