Author: HFI

Noah Medrano’s 2024-25 academic year was marked by numerous accomplishments. He was named a Hispanic Scholarship Fund scholar, presented his research at a conference for the first time, and most recently received the Robert L. Shurter Prize for leadership in extracurricular activities. Assistant Professor Alexis E. Block nominated him for this award due to his outstanding leadership in research, HackCWRU, residential life, and CWRU’s self-care club.

Medrano’s international research engagement was a highlight of this past year. In March, he traveled to Australia to present his work on the Affect-Sensing Wearables project at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). His project aims to support individuals through a wearable device to enhance social-physical interaction. “I had an amazing time getting to know the HRI research community and gained valuable insight from other researchers regarding my current project,” said Medrano, who was also selected to serve as a student volunteer at the conference.

In addition to his research, Medrano spent the spring semester as treasurer of HackCWRU, a hackathon for students at CWRU and neighboring schools. He managed purchases, planned and organized events, and helped the club raise over $12,000 for prizes and facilities costs.

Medrano’s impact extends beyond engineering at CWRU; he also actively contributes to campus residential life. Last year, he served as the Smith House Representative and Chair of Programming for the Juniper Community Council within the Residence Hall Association (RHA). In addition to planning and hosting events for residents of Juniper halls, he led RHA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion fair. He was eventually promoted to Vice President of Residential Services on the Executive Board of the RHA. As an RHA leader, he addressed facility concerns, leads the RHA’s Advocacy Committee, and serves as National Communications Coordinator for next year’s National Residence Hall Honorary. As the Spring 2026 Regional Business Conference facilities chair, he will manage delegations at conferences for both CWRU and the National Residence Hall Honorary.

Medrano is also co-president of CWRU’s self-care club, Se-xy (Self-carE, Xoxo You!). This organization hosts self-care events every two weeks to enhance students’ well-being and mental health and to foster a positive environment.

As Medrano continues his undergraduate studies, he aims to create systems that support the mental health and well-being of vulnerable or underrepresented populations. He also seeks to deepen his expertise in data analysis, recognizing its importance in modern research. “I am working to improve my research skills and gather experience designing and conducting user studies that involve generating insights for the general population,” he said.

When Mauricio Negrón was growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he looked up to several engineers, including his father. Negrón also had “a natural affinity for math and an aching curiosity to know the answers to scientific questions.” Once he came to Case Western Reserve University for his undergraduate studies, he was drawn to the Social and Physical Human-Robot Interaction (SaPHaRI) Lab and the Human Fusions Institute for their research in creating technology in the service of humanity.

“Engineering has taught me to approach complex problems with patience, structure, and resilience,” said Negrón, who appreciates the balance of analytical problem-solving, innovation, and creativity the discipline offers. “These skills have proven invaluable in academic settings and my personal life. Being able to navigate uncertainty with confidence and discipline is something I consider a lasting achievement.” Drawn to the SaPHaRI Lab for its supportive and collaborative environment, he looks forward to continuing his hands-on research when he returns in the fall

In addition to his engineering accomplishments, Negrón recently received the Italian Book Prize, an annual award presented to an outstanding student of Italian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. “He kept up the rigorous pace and met the demands of his first-year Italian courses,” said Professor Denise Caterinacci, who nominated him. “He was enthusiastic and attentive, engaged, and accountable for his progress, frequently checking to see if there were steps he could take to improve even more. He was simply exemplary, as a student of Italian, and it was a real pleasure to meet and work with him!”

Upon his graduation from CWRU (expected May 2027), Negrón plans to return to Puerto Rico. He is committed to playing a key role in supporting the island’s development, with a particular focus on addressing its infrastructure challenges. “There is a strong need for committed engineers and professionals to help modernize and rebuild key systems across the island, and I hope to play a part in that effort.”

From a young age, Austin Wilson was driven by an insatiable curiosity about how things worked. This interest led him to join the Science Olympiad in middle school and the Robotics team in high school. That passion propelled him to earn a B.S. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University in 2022. Now pursuing his M.S. in Computer Engineering at CWRU’s Human Fusions Institute, Wilson received an Ohio Space Grant Consortium fellowship to support his graduate research. He recently had the opportunity to present his work at the Ohio Aerospace Institute in Brook Park, Ohio.

Wilson is a member of Assistant Professor Alexis E. Block’s SaPHaRI (Social and Physical Human-Robot Interaction) Lab. His research focuses on AstroPsych, a novel, therapist-guided multimodal AI framework for real-time mental health support. Integrating principles from human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, and psychology, the project explores how technology can provide meaningful emotional support when human connection is limited.
In addition to his recent presentation at the Ohio Space Grant Consortium, Wilson also shared his research with an international audience at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. His workshop paper marked his first peer-reviewed publication as part of HFI and was presented remotely at the conference.

“I’m incredibly proud of Austin for presenting our research at the Ohio Space Grant Consortium,” said Block. “He did an excellent job summarizing complex work with accuracy and clarity, and it was exciting to see how much interest his presentation generated. He was a fantastic representative of our lab and CWRU.”

Andrew Chen’s father took him to Ohio University’s annual Physics & Astronomy Open House when he was a child. “I remember being captivated by telescopes that zoomed in to show details of the sun and moon,” he recalls. “While I enjoyed chemistry experiments with liquid nitrogen, engineering with turtle bots and hovercraft, and physics with grape microwave plasma, at the time, I lacked the context to appreciate these experiences fully.” Having enjoyed his mathematics classes in middle and high school, he was inspired by his interest in computers’ inner workings to build several computers as a high school student and pursue a computer science degree in college.

Now, in his last semester as an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University, Chen has been awarded an Ohio Space Grant Consortium Fellowship to support his master’s thesis research next year in Dr. Alexis E. Block’s SaPHaRI (Social and Physical Human-Robot Interaction) Lab, which is part of the Human Fusions Institute. Entitled RoboSOAR (Robotic System for Optimized Adaptive inteRaction), his research aims to develop an AI-driven robotic system capable of gesture-based movements that modify its behavior based on human feedback. He is creating a generalizable framework for various tasks and robotic platforms. “I am excited and looking forward to using the recent methods that I learned through the papers to create something that I never thought I would create before,” said Chen, who has studied the recent state-of-the-art models.

Chen was initially hesitant to apply for the fellowship as he only learned about the opportunity a few days before the deadline. After realizing “there would be no downside to applying, [he] and Dr. Block started creating drafts for the fellowship proposal. By writing this application, [they] were able to figure out the scope of [his] thesis and research additional applications that [this] idea could be applied to.” He also appreciates that the fellowship covers his tuition for the 2025-26 academic year.

As he prepares to graduate with his B.S. in electrical and computer engineering, Chen is most thankful for “meaningful experiences from conversations with [his] friends, classmates, and professors” at CWRU, which have given him different perspectives on his work. Joining the SaPHaRI lab in August 2024 led to a new interest in human-robot interaction, and he is now following robotics tech news regularly. “I’m always curious about the latest research breakthroughs and new ideas emerging. When I was younger, I would watch videos of robots and machines, but I never fathomed doing it myself.” He found the lab through the CWRU website and is thankful to have met many researchers through the SaPHaRI lab and HFI.

“I am incredibly proud of Andrew for being awarded this prestigious fellowship to support his master’s thesis research,” said Dr. Block. “This recognition is well-deserved and reflects his creativity, dedication, and technical skills. I’m excited to continue working with him on this important work!”

 

On March 14, Sedona Cady defended her Ph.D. dissertation, “Perceptual, Functional, and Psychosocial Impacts of a Wirelessly Connected Implanted Sensorimotor Interface for Bidirectional Upper Limb Neuroprostheses.”

While at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cady was instrumental in validating a high channel count, wirelessly connected, implanted somatosensory electrical neurostimulation and sensing (iSENS) system to restore sensation and myoelectric control to individuals with upper limb loss. Cady was part of a collaborative effort to implement a crossover clinical trial in which one study participant with upper limb loss used the iSENS system with a bidirectional prosthesis at home for three months. Long-term use of the iSENS system with the bidirectional prosthesis yielded several functional and psychosocial improvements, highlighting the significance of implanted interfaces to improve the lives of prosthesis users. In 2023, Cady and a study participant had the opportunity to present the system at a Demo Day at The Pentagon in Arlington, Va.

A native of Mokena, Illinois, Cady came to CWRU after earning her B.S. in biomedical engineering from Ohio State University. She was drawn to CWRU for its clinical research in neural engineering.

Primarily interested in closed-loop neuromodulation devices, sensory neuroscience, and rehabilitation engineering, Cady is currently applying for biomedical engineering and clinical research scientist industry positions related to the research and development of neuromodulation devices. She thanks her Ph.D. advisor, Human Fusions Institute director Dustin Tyler, for his guidance, mentorship, and support.

Members of Case Western Reserve University’s SaPHaRI Lab recently had the opportunity to present their research internationally. Three workshop papers were accepted to a workshop at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI): AstroPsych: A Multimodal AI-Driven Framework for Real-Time Mental Health Support in Communication-Limited Environments by Austin Wilson and Alexis E. Block, RoboSOAR: Robotic System for Optimized Adaptive inteRaction by Andrew Chen*, Ashraf Ibraheem* (*indicates the two authors contributed equally),  Ben Richardson (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems), and Alexis E. Block, and Participatory Co-Design of Affect-Sensing Wearables for Emotional Expression and Social Interaction Support by Noah Medrano, Alice Liu, Ankur Mehta (UCLA), and Alexis E. Block. SaPHaRI Lab Director Block and undergraduate student Medrano traveled to Melbourne, Australia, to present their research, while M.S. student Wilson, B.S./M.S. student Chen, and B.S. students Ibraheem and Liu gave their presentations virtually. For most of the students, it was their first accepted paper. 

“For such a young lab, I’m incredibly proud that we had such a significant presence at the leading conference in our field this year,” said Block. Liu, interested in the intersections of humans, cognition, and technology, shared her mentor’s pride and described contributing to the workshop paper as among her proudest STEM accomplishments so far. Chen enjoyed researching different types of machine learning and artificial intelligence while working on his paper, reviewing “state of the art” literature, and laying out an overview for the “in-the-wild user study” that will be conducted later in the project.  

Whether in-person or virtually, Block’s students actively participated in mentoring sessions with leading HRI experts and discussed their research in depth. Their active involvement in the research process and eagerness to learn and improve their work were evident to the mentors. Block noted that the mentors were “highly impressed” with her students’ work and provided helpful suggestions to strengthen their contributions further.  

Liu described the feedback she received on her first paper as “important and insightful,” while Chen appreciated his mentors’ varied perspectives and design modification suggestions. “It was interesting to hear other researchers’ opinions on our project and to see how mentors’ different backgrounds in HRI shape their interpretations and evaluations of a research project,” he said. Ibraheem added, “I left the conference with insights that emerged from our mentors’ diverse experiences and backgrounds. These discussions broadened my understanding of a range of topics and helped me solidify a meaningful direction for my ongoing research.” Wilson appreciated that his session “raised new considerations [he] hadn’t previously considered,” ultimately expanding his perspective and helping him refine his approach moving forward. 

SaPHaRI lab members made a strong impact at the conference through their research presentations and by enriching the experience for others. Medrano served as a student volunteer throughout the entire conference and was instrumental to the event’s success. While Block served as a mentor for the “Workshop Your Study Design” and “HRI Pioneers” workshop sessions, the latter of which she participated in (2018) and later chaired (2019). She also played a key role as a jury member for the Best Demonstration Award.  

The Daily’s Spartan Showcase features Noah Medrano, an undergraduate researcher in the Human Fusions Institute’s SaPHaRI Lab under Dr. Alexis E. Block.

Noah is leading the Affect-Sensing Wearables project, pioneering devices that detect and respond to human emotions—advancing the future of social robotics and affective computing.

Read more about his work in The Daily: https://bit.ly/4hIDLKb

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Pa., Zach Patterson, inspired by the engineers in his family, enjoyed creative building projects and taking things apart. When he reached high school, his teachers and counselors encouraged him to pursue engineering in college after seeing his success in math and science classes. Now, Patterson is the newest addition to the Case Western Reserve University faculty and the first full-time Mechanical Engineering faculty member in the Human Fusions Institute.

Patterson is the director of CWRU’s new Cybernetics and Physical Intelligence Laboratory, which studies various topics in robotics, intelligence, biomechanics, and dynamical systems theory. His lab will conduct terrestrial and aquatic research with next-generation, bioinspired robots that incorporate materials ranging from soft to rigid. He is currently recruiting both undergraduate and graduate students for research opportunities.

Drawn to HFI for its multidisciplinary nature, Patterson is excited to work with students and faculty from various academic backgrounds, as well as the opportunity to work with medical professionals from the Case School of Medicine and local hospitals for the first time in his career.

In addition to his lab work, Patterson will teach Nonlinear Dynamics and Control at CWRU in Spring 2025. Throughout his time as a student, he had several professors whose courses made him interested in topics he wouldn’t ordinarily expect to be interested in, and he hopes to do that for students in this course and future courses he teaches.

The grandson of an electrical engineer and the son of two medical professionals, Patterson went to University of Pittsburgh after high school, planning to pursue a biomedical engineering B.S., possibly on a pre-medicine track. During his undergraduate years, he got involved with groups of students engaged in various hands-on engineering projects outside the classroom. When he learned more about different disciplines, he realized the best fit for him was mechanical engineering, enjoying how it combined working with his brain and working with his hands.

After finishing his undergraduate studies, he began his graduate career at Carnegie Mellon University, primarily focusing on bio-inspired soft robots. During his PhD, he came to appreciate robotics’ potential to provide practical benefits in our lives. As a researcher, he also appreciated how, in robotics, algorithmic principles can be validated on physical systems.

After graduating from Carnegie Mellon, he became a postdoctoral scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he developed a new class of soft-rigid hybrid robots, including multi-material robot arms and a bio-inspired sea turtle robot. He hopes to expand on these research directions to enable robots that operate more like humans and other animals.

Dustin Tyler, Director of the Human Fusions Institute (HFI) and co-founder of Afference, is featured in Freethink’s Hard Reset series, which highlights cutting-edge innovations addressing today’s challenges. The episode explores how Afference’s Phantom harness, built on technology developed at HFI, is introducing the sense of touch into virtual reality.

The Phantom harness uses non-invasive electrical stimulation to interact with the nervous system, enabling users to experience basic touch sensations in virtual environments. As Dustin Tyler explains, touch is fundamental to human connection, and bringing it into virtual spaces represents a major step forward for neural haptics.

This feature demonstrates how HFI research translates into real-world applications, bridging the gap between academic innovation and practical technology.

Discover how Afference is transforming virtual reality by introducing the sense of touch. Watch Freethink’s video for an inside look at the technology

 

The Human Fusions Institute left an impression at the inaugural IEEE Telepresence conference in Pasadena, Calif. Multiple team members gave presentations that will result in papers published in IEEE Xplore sometime in 2025.

Ph.D. student Rachel Jakes presented research she and fellow Ph.D. student Luis Mesias Flores have done on Adjustable Contact Electrode rings, wearable haptic interfaces that use electrical nerve stimulation. Jakes demonstrated to attendees how the rings can adapt to different nerve anatomy and provide fingertip sensation without impeding the hand. She also discussed the rings’ compatibility with mobile telepresence and mixed reality applications, emphasizing their compatibility with virtual reality headset-based optical hand tracking.

Software engineer S. M. Asjad’s presentation, “NeuroReality: A Data Distribution Service-Based Inter-Process Communication Middleware,” demonstrated a faster, more reliable, robust, and scalable communication middleware than others currently used in the field. As he researched, he found that his middleware improved performance while handling extensive data types, modalities, and definitions. HFI’s NeuroReality platform allows reliable long-distance data communication and is robust to network changes, the key requirement for a seamless telepresence experience.

“There was excitement and interest within the community as people wanted to learn more about how our platform works and how it addressed the limitations of other platforms,” said Asjad. “There was also interest in knowing about an academic version of NeuroReality being released to the public.”

In addition to presenting their research, HFI conference attendees appreciated the opportunity to meet researchers in similar fields worldwide.  “We usually just ask basic qualitative or specific quantitative questions, but one of the presenters suggested asking the participant to identify not only how strong a sensation was but what it felt like in a quantitative manner,” said Flores. “The conference provided an excellent overview of multiple fields like robotics, controls, haptics, and human factors and how they all relate to telepresence.”

“We learned that many people are trying to answer the same research questions as us, and it was a good opportunity to see how their methodologies differ from ours,” said Asjad.