Keya Ghonasgi

WEBSITE(S)| Personal Website

My research group will focus on human-robot partnerships that intelligently assist, rehabilitate and augment human performance. I am using reinforcement learning to better quantify human behavior and response to lower-limb exoskeleton interactions during walking. I defended my Ph.D. dissertation, "Practice Makes Perfect: Leveraging Exoskeleton Interactions To Elucidate The Motor Learning Process," at the University of Texas at Austin in July 2023 - where my research focused on upper-limb wearable devices. I earned my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University in 2018 where I explored the impact of pelvic forces on gait rehabilitation in able-bodied participants and those suffering from cerebral palsy. My other research stints include internships at IIT Bombay (2015-16), Intel (summer 2018), and Meta Reality Labs (summer 2022). I was honored as a 2022 Rising Star in ME and a 2023 CalTech Young Investigator Lecturer, and have received funding from various sources including UT Austin's graduate fellowship (2022-23), an NSF M3X grant, and through collaborations with Meta Reality Labs and Google Brain. 

The promising combination of human intuition & intention with ever-improving robot design & intelligence will inevitably lead to wearable robots becoming as ubiquitous as smartphones and smartwatches. I am passionate about realizing this vision through my research.  

Education

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics and Controls, Columbia University

B.E. in Mechanical Engineering, M.S. in Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Goa, India

Honors & Awards

Best Lightning Presentation- College of Engineering, 2023

Caltech Young Investigators Lecturer, 2023

University Graduate Continuing Fellowship, 2022-23

Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering 2022 at Stanford University, 2022

Best Student Poster - Coursework, 2019

Professional Development Award, 2019 & 2022

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