School of Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research Lab Profiles

The Department of Mechanical Engineering encourages everyone to pursue research opportunities. The following labs may have openings available for undergraduate and master’s students. Check out each lab's website for information about current projects, recent publications, contact information, and more.

 Applications of Data Science in Human Factors Engineering

A focus on quantitative approaches to understanding participant functioning on complex human-machine systems. This includes developing neural network models in cognitive neuroscience and aging, modeling human-machine teaming, and developing compensatory mechanisms to alleviate age-related losses in vision and cognition.

  • Faculty: Professor of the Practice Dan Hannon
  • Prerequisites: Students must have a stated interest in exploring topics in data science as it applies to understanding human behavior. A background in statistics, experimental design, and computer programming (e.g., R statistical language and/or Python) are helpful, but not necessary.
  • Open Positions: Students will be assigned to projects based on interest and skill level. Must be able to attend weekly lab meetings. There is an expectation to be able to present results at a student conference in April.
  • Responsibilities: Students should be ready to take on an independent research project with publication potential.
  • Get Involved: Email Professor Daniel Hannon at dan.hannon@tufts.edu
  • Anything else to know? Conducting research is serious work, requiring focus and commitment. Often, doing the work is the reward. It's not for everyone.

Learn about Professor Hannon

 

 Automated Systems and Robotics (ASAR) Lab

The goal of the Automated Systems and Robotics Laboratory is to develop novel control, navigation and interface technologies that ensure safe, reliable and seamless interactions between human and machine. They are pursuing the characterization of sensors for autonomous vehicles.

  • Faculty: Professor and Chair Jason Rife
  • Prerequisites: Some experience with programming (e.g. ES2, CS10, or CS11) is needed. Experience with control systems (e.g. ME30) is optional, but useful.
  • Open Positions: Yes
  • Responsibilities: Commit to conducting independent research for approximately 10 hr/week (usually for credit, by registering in ME94, ME294, or an equivalent).
  • Get Involved: Email jason.rife@tufts.edu.
  • Anything else to know? No

Learn about the ASAR Lab

 

 Chiesa Research Group

The Chiesa Research Group’s primary research area is superconducting materials for energy application. Their current research focus is the electro-mechanical behavior of superconducting materials for large magnets used in fusion power devices. Fusion reactors could play a key role in the power production of future generations. Powerful superconducting magnets are used to confine the plasma created in the fusion vessel. During operations, these magnets are subjected to extremely large forces that could reduce the overall performance of the superconducting material they are made of, jeopardizing the overall performance of the machine. To succeed in building such systems, it is critical to investigate the electro-mechanical properties of superconducting materials. Experimental and finite element modeling work in this subject is performed at Tufts University, in collaboration with several national laboratories.

  • Faculty: Professor Luisa Chiesa
  • Prerequisites: Typically second-year student or beyond.
  • Open Positions: Professor Chiesa likes to meet with students to see if they find the research interesting. The lab could also assist students in creating projects.
  • Responsibilities: Data collection, hands-on activities (soldering, preparing samples), participating in testing, Finite Element Analysis.
  • Get Involved: Students can email luisa.chiesa@tufts.edu for a preliminary meeting and visit to the lab.
  • Anything else to know? The Chiesa Research Group works with cryogenic fluids (liquid nitrogen) and currents. They often design their own experiments so that students can also do CAD work and experimental devices design.

Learn about Professor Chiesa

 

 Computational Mechanics Lab

The Computational Mechanics Lab develops mathematical and computational tools to study multiscale fluid–structure interactions in complex biological, biomedical, and engineered systems.

  • Faculty: Associate Professor Tong (Tony) Gao
  • Prerequisites: Fluid and/or solid mechanics, computation and numerical methods, basic data analysis
  • Open Positions: Yes
  • Responsibilities: N/A
  • Get Involved: Please email Principal Investigator tong.gao@tufts.edu.
  • Anything else to know? N/A

Learn about the Computational Mechanics Lab

 

 Dave Miller - Human Factors

Assistant Teaching Professor Dave Miller studies driving simulation, usability research, and human-computer interaction.

  • Faculty: Assistant Teaching Professor Dave Miller
  • Prerequisites: N/A – although students should be capable of doing an independent project with some guidance from Professor Miller.
  • Open Positions: No formal positions, but there are opportunities to get involved with his research group.
  • Responsibilities: N/A
  • Get Involved: Email dave.miller@tufts.edu.
  • Anything else to know? Research is challenging, but rewarding.

Learn about Dave Miller

 

 FETLab@CEEO

The Future Educational Technologies (FET) Lab leverages the learning sciences to develop new educational technologies for K-16 science, math, and engineering education. The lab does research in engineering education, child-robot interaction, robotics, and musical instrument analysis. They also develop low-cost technologies to teach STEM in the classroom, analyze musical instruments, and work with LEGO Education on developing activities and teacher communities.

  • Faculty: John R. Beaver Professor Chris Rogers, Research Associate Professor Ethan Danahy, and Research Assistant Professor Jennifer Cross
  • Prerequisites: An introductory robotics course or a musical engineering course. Students will need to have built and programmed their own robot, or have a solid understanding of musical instrument design or music.
  • Open Positions: No
  • Responsibilities: N/A
  • Get Involved: Interested students are encouraged to meet with one of the professors listed above.
  • Anything else to know? Doing research is what makes colleges different from high schools. It is exciting to develop new knowledge and do stuff that no one else has done. The lab highly recommends getting involved by talking with various professors.

Learn about FETLab@CEEO

 

 IDEAlab

Innovation, Design, Engineering, Action! The IDEA Lab is an adventurous research group involved in projects related to virtual reality development, machine learning, UX/UI design, human factors, industrial design, hyper-spectral imaging, and so much more. This lab has around 80 students working across 6 major projects; and they welcome a variety of majors including (but not limited to) Human Factors Engineering, Engineering Psychology, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science.

  • Faculty: Professor of the Practice James Intriligator
  • Prerequisites: N/A
  • Open Positions: Yes and no. The lab prefers to get new students in the first few weeks of the semester, but there are some project sub-teams that need more students – especially mechanical engineering, computer science, and perhaps music.
  • Responsibilities: N/A
  • Get Involved: Please contact james.intriligator@tufts.edu.
  • Anything else to know? No

Learn about IDEAlab

 

 Kollective Organization Lab

The Kollective Organization Lab explores the intersection of animal collective behavior, fluid mechanics, and robotics. The lab uses both experiments and mathematical models to reveal how animal swarms self-organize and how to design swarm robotic systems that are maneuverable and adaptive.

Learn about the Kollective Organization Lab

 

 Nemitz Robotics Group

The Nemitz Robotics Group develops resilient robotic systems capable of withstanding structural deformations and electromagnetic interference that would disable conventional computing and control methods. Their robots are designed for challenging applications such as cave rescues, subsea operations, explosive ordnance disposal, nuclear decommissioning, space exploration, and MRI-guided surgery.

  • Faculty: Assistant Professor Markus Nemitz
  • Prerequisites: Junior/senior students will have the most success if they spend around 10 hours per week in the lab and work under the direct supervision of PhD students. Students will benefit from having taken ME11, ME30, ME31, 35, as work in the lab requires a hands-on mechatronics background.
  • Open Positions: Yes
  • Responsibilities: The lab is always seeking undergraduate students to contribute to our research. Many of their publications include undergraduate co-authors, which benefit both the students, who develop a passion for research and gain conference experience, and the group. They are particularly interested in students who are passionate about 3D printing and soft robotics, as they focus on soft, stretchable robots rather than rigid systems. Creativity is a key asset in this area of research, and they have found undergraduate students to be particularly strong contributors.
  • Get Involved: Students should first review the Nemitz Robotics Group webpage to familiarize themselves with the work. Next, they should reflect on their own interests and create a PowerPoint presentation that maps the overlap between their passions and the lab's research mission. This presentation can be given to Professor Nemitz or directly to one of his PhD students, as undergraduate students are typically mentored by graduate students. Ultimately, postgraduate students need to see a clear alignment.
  • Anything else to know? Please ensure that you thoroughly study the lab’s research; they want to avoid the impression that you are interested in research without a clear understanding of what the lab does. Familiarity with their work is essential before joining the team.

Learn about the Nemitz Robotics Group

 

 Professor Mark Kachanov's Lab

Professor Mark Kachanov's Lab focuses on the questions: How does microstructure of a material determines its overall (engineering) properties, such as elasticity, electric/thermal conductivity, etc? Can changes in one property due to changes of microstructure be related to changes in other property? An application: Monitoring loss of elastic stiffness due to microcracking by changes in conductivity that are easier to measure.

  • Faculty: Professor Mark Kachanov
  • Prerequisites: Students must have a background in strength of materials, preferably at advanced level (ME-120 or equivalent).
  • Open Positions: Students will be assigned to projects based on interest and skill level.
  • Responsibilities: Students should be ready to take on an independent research project with publication potential.
  • Get Involved: Email mark.kachanov@tufts.edu.
  • Anything else to know? No

Learn about Professor Kachanov

 

 SPARC Lab

The SPARC Lab's research lies at the intersection of control theory, machine learning, and robotics, with the goal of enabling provably safe and dynamic robot autonomy in uncertain real-world settings. The lab's work bridges theory and practice through the development of risk-aware control frameworks, efficient deployable algorithms, and validation on a wide range of robot platforms. Glenn R. Stevens, E49 Assistant Professor Ryan Cosner aims to create safety methods that inspire trust and provide us with the confidence needed to deploy high-performance autonomous robots at scale.

  • Faculty: Glenn R. Stevens, E49 Assistant Professor Ryan Cosner
  • Prerequisites: While the lab does not explicitly have prerequisites, our research is most closely aligned with: 
    • Control: ME30, ME31
    • Dynamics: ME21, ME121
    • Robotics: ME35, ME133
    • Math: CS168, MATH70, ES55, RS56, MATH51, MATH135/136
    • Machine Learning: CS135, CS138
  • Open Positions: Yes
  • Responsibilities: The traits that we look for are: passion, curiosity, perseverance, and teamwork.
  • Get Involved: The best way to get involved with the lab is to reach out to check out the "Join the Lab" information page and chat with Ryan or one of the current lab members during the lab's office hours (Friday's 3-5pm, 574 Boston Ave, Room 313).
  • Anything else to know? No

Learn about the SPARC Lab

 

 Wendell Research Group – Engineering Education

The Wendell Research Group, based at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), studies how to transform engineering learning environments into inclusive knowledge-building communities. They aim to develop tools, approaches, and instructional frameworks that help all learners engage more deeply in engineering practices and construct engineering knowledge that is meaningful to them. They build theory as we develop and iterate on curriculum materials, pedagogical techniques, and classroom resources, and they use mainly qualitative analytical techniques to answer research questions.

  • Faculty: Associate Professor Kristen Wendell
  • Prerequisites: At least one course in engineering and at least one course in education, psychology, or child study & human development. Must be at least a second-year student.
  • Open Positions: No
  • Responsibilities: N/A
  • Get Involved: When they have summer positions available, the process is to apply through the CEEO summer application. When they have academic-year positions available, the process is to email kristen.wendell@tufts.edu describing the reason for your interest.
  • Anything else to know? No

Learn about the Wendell Research Group