Bio: Neville Hogan is Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned a Diploma in Engineering (with distinction) from Dublin Institute of Technology and M.S., Mechanical Engineer and Ph.D. degrees from MIT. He joined MIT’s faculty in 1979 and presently directs the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation. He co-founded Interactive Motion Technologies, subsequently part of Bionik Laboratories. His research includes robotics, motor neuroscience, and rehabilitation engineering, emphasizing the control of physical contact and dynamic interaction. Awards include: Honorary Doctorates from Delft University of Technology and Dublin Institute of Technology; the Silver Medal of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland; the Saint Patrick’s Day Medal for Academia from Science Foundation Ireland; the Henry M. Paynter Outstanding Investigator Award and the Rufus T. Oldenburger Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Dynamic Systems and Control Division; and from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Academic Career Achievement Award from the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and the Pioneer in Robotics Award from the Robotics and Automation Society.

Bio: Quentin Sanders holds a joint appointment in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at George Mason University's College of Engineering and Computing. He received his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2015, and his master’s and PhD in Mechanical engineering from the University of California, Irvine in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Prior to joining the Department of Bioengineering, Sanders spent a year at X, the moonshot factory (formerly Google X), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Joint Biomedical Engineering Program at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. At George Mason University, he leads the Enabling Mobility through Patient Oriented Wearables and Robotics (EMPOWER) Laboratory, which develops robotic and prosthetic devices for individuals with neurological injuries or amputations.

Bio: Nidhi Seethapathi is the Frederick A. (1971) and Carole J. Middleton Career Development Assistant Professor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Her group builds predictive models to understand biological motor control using a combination of theory, computational modeling, and experiments. In 2025, she was named to the Innovators under 35 list by MIT Technology Review. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and obtained her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University, where she was a Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future Fellow and a Future Academic Scholar Training fellow.

Bio: Dr. Gelsy Torres-Oviedo is an accomplished researcher and educator specializing in locomotor learning, motor control, and neurorehabilitation. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh and Co-director of both the MS2PhD BRIDGE Fellowship and the Program in Neural Computation, a joint initiative between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Torres-Oviedo earned her B.S. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech-Emory University, and completed postdoctoral training in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on understanding how humans adapt their walking patterns through interactions with their environment, with a particular emphasis on aging and neurological conditions such as stroke. Dr. Torres-Oviedo has made significant contributions to identifying age-related changes in locomotor plasticity, understanding muscle coordination for balance and locomotion, and characterizing gait adaptability in older adults and stroke survivors using split-belt treadmill paradigms. Her work has provided critical insights into how cognitive and neural mechanisms influence gait adaptability across the lifespan.

Bio: Dr. Awad is a physical therapist, clinical biomechanist, and rehabilitation scientist. He is the founding director of the Neuromotor Recovery Laboratory at Boston University where he is an Associate Professor in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, with a secondary appointment in the College of Engineering. In addition, he is a founding core faculty member of the Harvard Move Lab and BU's Center for Brain Recovery, and holds research appointments at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard University, and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Awad’s research focuses on translating wearable assistive and rehabilitative technologies into better rehabilitation care. He is a recognized key opinion leader in the field of neurorehabilitation, serves as Head of Clinical Affairs at REEV, Chief Science Advisor to MedRhythms, and is Co-founder and CEO of reNeu, an NIH-funded startup focused on advancing technology-enabled neurorehabilitation in the clinic, home, and community. Dr. Awad is a long-standing Associate Editor for the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation and is a standing member of the NIH Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Sciences Study Section.

Bio: Francesco Lanotte is a Data Scientist at the Technology and Innovation Hub and a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University. His research focuses on leveraging wearable technologies and machine learning to enhance rehabilitation outcomes across various clinical populations. He has experience developing and validating control systems for integrated platforms that support clinical decision-making and improve human capabilities. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2015, a Master of Science in Bionics Engineering from the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2017, and a Ph.D. in Biorobotics from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2021. During his doctoral studies, he specialized in developing, benchmarking, and experimentally assessing control algorithms for powered exoskeletons and lower-limb prostheses.