Recent & Archived News

I'm honored to have received the 2025 Paul M. Fitts Education Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) at their Annual Meeting in Chicago.  I want to especially thank my current and former students (including 45 Ph.D. and 22 M.S. advisees), postdocs, and many others who have been part of this journey. 

Please visit the 2025 HFES Awards page and see Slides 7 and 9 for more information. (October 2025)

A new article Evaluating back-support exoskeletons in simulated construction-relevant tasks: Effects on task completion time and aspects of usability was published in Applied Ergonomics (October 2025).

A new article Optimizing passive exoskeleton torque for dynamic overhead work: Phase-specific analysis on muscle activity and perceived exertion was published in Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology (September 2025).

A new article User Experiences and Adoption Factors for a Back-Support Exosuit in Automotive Logistics: Results from Field Testing up to 18 Months was published in IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors (August 2025).

I have been appointed to the John Grado Professorship, which was approved by the VT Board of Visitors in March 2025.
(announced in Virginia Tech News on June 10, 2025)

Two new articles were recently published (June 2025): 

• Passive back support exoskeletons do not effectively reduce physical demands during simulated floor tiling in Applied Ergonomics

• Using musculoskeletal models to estimate the effects of exoskeletons on spine loads during dynamic lifting tasks: differences between OpenSim and the AnyBody modelling system in Journal of Biomechanics

A new article A data-driven approach to classifying manual material handling tasks using markerless motion capture and recurrent neural networks was published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics (May 2025).

A new article Passive back support exoskeletons do not effectively reduce physical demands during simulated floor tiling was published in Applied Ergonomics (May 2025).

A new article Perspectives of Mining Personnel on Adopting Occupational Exoskeletons: Comparisons Between a Developed and a Developing Country was published in Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (April 2025).

Four (4) more new articles were published (March 2025):

• Cognitive workload assessment during VR forklift training was published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

• Passive arm-support and back-support exoskeletons have distinct phase-dependent effects on physical demands during cart pushing and pulling: An exploratory study was published in Applied Ergonomics

• Estimating dynamic external hand forces during overhead work with and without an exoskeleton: Evaluating an approach using electromyography signals and random forest regression was published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

• Understanding the drivers of and barriers to adopting passive back- and arm-support exoskeletons in construction: Results from interviews and short-term field testing was published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

A new article Gait variability predicts post-fatigue obstacle course performance among military cadets: An exploratory study was published in Applied Ergonomics (March 2025).

A new article Older workers spend less time in extreme trunk and upper-arm postures during order-picking tasks: Results from field testing was published in Applied Ergonomics (January 2025).

A new article Changes in forklift driving performance and postures among novices resulting from training using a high-fidelity virtual reality simulator: An exploratory study was published in Ergonomics (September 2024).

A new article Changes in forklift driving performance and postures among novices resulting from training using a high-fidelity virtual reality simulator: An exploratory study was published in Ergonomics (September 2024).

A new article Understanding contributing factors to exoskeleton use-intention in construction: A decision tree approach using results from an online survey was published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics (September 2024).

Go to Publications page

A new article Shoulder kinematics during cyclic overhead work are affected by a passive arm support exoskeleton was published in Applied Ergonomics (July 2024).

A new article Evaluation of a passive arm-support exoskeleton for surgical team members: Results from live surgeries was published in Journal of Safety Research (June 2024).

A new article, Teleoperator-Robot-Human Interaction in Manufacturing: Perspectives from Industry, Robot Manufacturers, and Researchers, was published in IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors (May 2024).