Panagiotis Polygerinos
Panagiotis Polygerinos
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., King’s College London, UK
Panagiotis Polygerinos joined nine other new faculty at the Polytechnic School in the 2015–2016 academic year as an assistant professor focused on robotic and mechatronic systems.
“Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary field that combines mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science,” Polygerinos said. “It draws on the strengths of different fields of engineering in order to give a more well-rounded understanding of systems.”
Polygerinos is developing a new graduate course called “Mechatronics Design Innovation” that will be first offered in Fall 2016. The new course will emphasize the design and development of new mechatronic devices for healthcare to address needs identified by Arizona healthcare industry partners and clinicians.
“The course will provide a unique pedagogical opportunity to form entrepreneurial teams and train ASU students to be innovators; inspire them to work in groups; apply their engineering skills to solve real-world, technological healthcare challenges; and support them in translating their ideas into products,” Polygerinos said. “One main difference with this new course is that student teams will have to submit their prototyped idea to a conference or journal, file a patent application or participate and present at an engineering competition.”
Second-year engineering students at the Polytechnic campus have the opportunity to learn from Polygerinos in “Use-Inspired Design Project” I and II (EGR 201 and 202), where he teaches design, professionalism and engineering practice through a series of multidisciplinary “mini projects.”
His research covers three main areas: wearable robotic systems designed after body shapes and functions that enhance a person’s motions and physical abilities; robotically assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS) systems for use by surgeons that make surgery safer and less painful than open surgery; and soft robotics that use flexible materials to embed intelligence in body mechanisms and are ideally suited for interaction with humans.
Polygerinos founded the multidisciplinary Bio-Inspired Mechatronics Lab at the Polytechnic campus that focuses on the research and development of biologically inspired mechatronic devices. Polygerinos’ team aims to discover engineering principles and designs that will create entirely new approaches for wearable assistive devices and soft robotics to transform patient care and human activity.
“The current challenge of robotics is how we go from robots that work in isolation to robots that work with humans,” Polygerinos said. “If we can have robots cooperating with human beings, with technology specifically designed for interaction, we will be able to prevent injury, help with daily activities and augment or restore physical abilities. To do this we need to create new technologies, new controls and new materials to make everything safer and more capable to work next to human beings.”
If you’re interested in this area of research, Polygerinos is always looking for motivated graduate and undergraduate students to do research in wearable technology and soft robotics.
He emphasizes that the Polytechnic School and campus are great for aspiring researchers.
“The Polytechnic School is bringing a lot of new mind power to increase the research capabilities of the campus,” Polygerinos said. “There’s so much space here and it’s only going to grow as a research hub.”
Additionally welcome the following new faculty in the Polytechnic School:
Daniel Aukes
Daniel Aukes
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University
Daniel Aukes is an assistant professor in engineering at the Polytechnic School. He focuses on developing design tools for robotics and mechatronics applications, focusing on new manufacturing technologies.
Jeremi London
Jeremi London
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Purdue University
Jeremi London is an assistant professor of engineering in the Polytechnic School. She employs mixed methods research designs and computational tools to address complex problems relevant to her research interests in: science policy issues surrounding STEM learning in cyberlearning environments; accountability, transparency, and impact of federal investments in STEM education research and development; and applications of simulation and modeling tools to address undergraduate engineering education research problems.
Wenlong Zhang
Wenlong Zhang
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Berekley
Wenlong Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Polytechnic School at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. His research interests lie in the design, modeling, and control of cyber-physical systems, with applications to healthcare, robotics, and manufacturing.
Steve Cho
Steve Cho
Lecturer
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Steve Cho is a lecturer in the Technological Entrepreneurship and Management Program of the Polytechnic School. Cho turns technology into new business ventures and his expertise includes entrepreneurship, strategic marketing, product development, design for quality, operations, and leadership.
Gregory Files
Gregory Files
Lecturer
M.S., South University
Gregory Files comes to ASU with a background in law enforcement, aviation, and corporate training. Files earned his pilot’s license in 1997 and has several years experience flying with the airlines. He joined ASU in 2012 as an instructor in the aviation department and is now serving as a lecturer.
Usha Jagannathan
Usha Jagannathan
Lecturer
M.S., Bharathiar University, India
Usha Jagannathan is a lecturer in the Polytechnic School. She will be defending her Ph.D. dissertation this year in technology & E-learning. Her work provides a new lens through which to further explore at what rate faculty infuse virtual IT labs in their college and university based web-enhanced classrooms and to find out why not all teaching faculty adopt virtual labs for their pedagogical practices in the IT degree programs to better meet the needs of today’s 21st century students.
Chad Kennedy
Chad Kennedy
Lecturer
Ph.D., Arizona State University
Chad Kennedy is a lecturer for the Technology Entrepreneurship and Management program. His experience spans biomedical engineering research, project management and advanced technology application in industry.
JoAnne McDermand Jr.
Lecturer
M.S., University of Advancing Technology
Damien Doheny
Lecturer
M.Sc., National College of Ireland
Damien Doheny has been in IT academia since 2010 and worked in various states and third level institutions. In his first two years of teaching IT and general education courses, he taught at multiple ITT Technical Institutions in Dallas, Tucson and Phoenix.
