Prospective Students

Thank you for your interest in the group. I am currently recruiting students to start working in January or August 2025.

PhD Students

I am always excited to mentor exceptional students on their path to a PhD. If you are interested in joining my group as a PhD student, please apply to Case’s EMAE PhD program. Indicate the Dynamics, Controls and Manufacturing concentration on your application. In your personal statement, make sure to discuss why you are interested in working in my lab in particular. If you are worried about the application fee, please note that the MAE department has waivers available upon request.

If you are interested in a position in my group, please first apply to the PhD program and then send me an email (include your CV and a brief note describing your interest). I will flag your application for evaluation and reach out if there is a potential fit.

Undergraduate Students

Current Case Western undergraduate students are always welcome to reach out about part-time research in the group. We currently are not taking undergraduate students from other universities.

Masters Students

In general, the EMAE Department does not provide research assistantships for MS students. I am happy to conduct research with MS students as part of their thesis.

What sort of background should I have to work in your group?

There is no one size fits all answer here. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of robotics research, students from many backgrounds will fit in my group. I will be thrilled to work with students who are theoretically oriented as well as students who are more hands on - in fact, my lab is an ideal environment for people who enjoy both theory and practice. I have mentored or collaborated with mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, biologists, physicists, mathemeticians, and even social scientists. Applicants who have some experience working in robotics or a related field will have a leg up, but most students will have a steep learning curve upon entering graduate school. Students will be most successful when they are intrinsically motivated and have a clear idea of why they are pursuing a research position - along with a requisite understanding of the potential career opportunities and restrictions that can result.

What will it be like to work in my group?

While each individual mentor-advisor relationship will be different, I can provide some guidelines for what I expect from students and what students can expect from me. Because my group works at the intersection of design/fabrication and computational/algorithmic research, I will expect some variation in the outcomes for each individual student based on where they fall on that spectrum. That said, I will expect each student to make several significant contributions to the field in the form of peer-reviewed journal publications, presentations at international conferences, open source code repositories, and robot designs. Students can expect that I will prioritize their career goals as I prioritize my own. I communicate regularly with students and generally stick to at least weekly meetings to make sure students stay on track. I value an open, respectful, and inclusive intellectual environment.