Learn more about our passive low back exoskeleton research in Public Safety by Oshin Tyagi and her team (Tiash Rana Mukherjee and Eshan Manchanda)! Very proud of this independent (and student-led extramurally funded) project on understanding the potential benefits and acceptance of exoskeletons on EMS personnel musculoskeletal health!
Check out the article here.
Not only did we enjoy live demonstrations of projects, but we also had the opportunity to discuss the needs and experiences of first responders over lunch and tiramisu! We were delighted to have you and we hope to host you again sometime soon!
Check out this article from Texas A&M University College of Engineering on our lab director Ranjana Mehta and her NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration #inclusion, #diversity, #equity, #accessibility, and space exploration (ideas) faculty fellowship!
ARTICLE HERE: https://lnkd.in/ermj5arN
Here are a few pictures while in Houston of her experiencing weightlessness in the “spinning chair” at different Gs, the outcome was messy!
Great work from our undergraduate researchers this semester! Our teams were composed of students who went above and beyond their normal coursework and chose to be a part of a research team in the NeuroErgo Lab through the Aggie Research Program (ARP) and AggiE_Challenge!
Research is a team effort, and each of these students brought unique insights and dedication to their work! Many of them will be continuing on into the Spring 2023 semester and we are excited to see what the future brings! Way to go.
Exo Research Team
While there is extensive research evaluating exoskeletons for static postures or tasks with limited ranges of motion, their benefits or limitations for tasks involving more complex movements and high ranges of motion are not well investigated. In sectors like healthcare, the task requirements for patient handling are seldom repetitive, require a wider range of motion, and require the use of different muscle groups at the same time. To fill this gap, students Eshan Manchanda, Vishal Gottumukkala, and Jimena Cortes Escalona participated in a study to evaluate the performance of exoskeletons for tasks specific to patient handling, and compare their benefits for tasks ranging from none to low, too high ranges of motion. This team was led by Ph.D. students Oshin Tyagi, Tiash Rana-Mukherjee, and Master’s student Shivangi Dwivedi.
Left to right: Oshin Tyagi, Ranjana Mehta, Shivangi Dwivedi, Eshan Manchanda, Vishal Gottumukkala, Jimena Cortes Escalona, Tiash Rana-Mukherjee
Team T2D
The project seeks to understand the aspects of human-robot teaming in an emergency response team. In order for the robot to be a successful team member, the trust in the robot needs to be optimal. Under-trust can lead to poor utilization, while overtrust can lead to safety issues. Students Thomas Bolf, Malik Rawashdeh, Diane Lee, Nora Ghosh, and Carlos Meisel want to understand human-robot team trust and its impacts on team collaboration and processes. This team was led by Ph.D. Student Aakash Yadav.
Left to right: Nora Ghosh, Diane Lee, Thomas Bolf, Malik Rawashdeh, Ranjana Mehta, Carlos Miesel, Aakash Yadav
LEARNER Team
The LEARNER team focuses on developing an adaptive training platform for next-gen emergency responders that is accessible and scalable. This semester, students Isabella Pedron, Sebastian Villa Cuellar, and Sydney Hunt utilized next-gen technology like Virtual Reality and Exoskeletons to asses how users learn overtime in a Virtual Environment. This team was led by Lindsey Brenner and Ph.D. student Shantanu Vyas.
Left to right: Isabella Pedron, Sebastian Villa Cuellar, Sydney Hunt, Ranjana Mehta, Lindsey Brenner
M3X – Dynamic Trust in Automated Driving
This project aims to explore and understand how drivers’ trust towards autonomy changes in different traffic situations in order to achieve a calibrated driver trust according to the autonomy capability. The team gained experience on a state-of-the-art high-fidelity driving simulator and received systematic training on multiple human physiological & behavioral measures (fNIRS, EEG, ECG, eye-tracking, etc.). Mattias Hollman investigated how heart rate data can reflect trust-induced physiological changes via heart rate variability analysis; Mihiran Pandey and Avi Bansal conducted entropy analysis on eye tracking data for trusting gaze behaviors. This team was led by Ph.D. student Yinsu Zhang.
Left to right: Yinsu Zhang, Mihiran Pandey, Mattias Hollman
See you all in 2023!!!
Congratulations Isabella Predron, Connor Barnes, and Ashley Bailly on your publication “Accelerating Training Through Personalization in Augmented Reality” in the 14th Volume of Explorations!
The Explorations journal showcases cutting-edge, original, and student-driven scholarship by undergraduates pursuing intellectual and aesthetic experiences outside of the classroom. The undergraduate work chosen for publication highlights curiosity, innovation, and independence. Recently published articles have been from a wide range of academic fields and disciplines in the humanities, the STEM fields, and creative works.
You can read the latest volume here!
Check out this article featuring Oshin Tyagi and her recent recognition for her research efforts! Through the Dr. Milden J. Fox Jr. ’69 and Mary P. Fox ’73 Fellowship, Oshin was awarded for her active participation in the department and good academic standing!
Oshin also received a $10,000 grant from the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Pilot Projects Research Training Program, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The program supports novel research ideas by new faculty and senior graduate students planning a career in academia. Oshin will serve as the Principal Investigator for the research project to investigate the role of exoskeletons in reducing back injuries in occupations such as emergency response and health care.
Way to go Oshin Tyagi! Your leadership and dedication to your work make you a wonderful candidate for the fellowship and grant. Congratulations.
Click here to read more!
Congratulations to our first-year Ph.D. student, John Hayes, on receiving the Huffines Student Research Grant!
The Huffines Student Research Grant awards a graduate student financial support towards their research, education, and the institute’s mission statement. John has received the Huffines Student Research Grant through the Sydney and JL Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance to conduct a pilot study examining the impacts of cognitive fatigue on sensorimotor impairment under vestibular dysfunction, which could have significant implications for populations ranging from athletes to the elderly to astronauts.
Way to go, John Hayes!!! We look forward to what this opportunity brings and thank you Sydney and JL Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance for such an award.
“To be the bridge between scientists, practitioners, and the lay public in all aspects of sports medicine and human performance, with a particular focus on athletic performance.”
What a successful week at the HFES – Human Factors and Ergonomics Society International Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia! A variety of special sessions, from workshops to keynotes to panels, provided the opportunity to learn from thought leaders in the field of human factors and ergonomics and the industries we shape. Ranging from Human-Robot Interaction, Training, Occupational Ergonomics, Exoskeletons, and so much more – the NeuroErgo lab had the wonderful opportunity of sharing our research during Techincal Group Sessions and Poster presentations.
We also got to see our friend, Dr. Sarah Hopko! It was nice to catch up and hear about work-life and see what she had been up to! We look forward to seeing you again in the near future!
We started off the conference with a bang! Oshin Tyagi and Ranjana Mehta were awarded the Human Factors Prize for their contribution towards equity and inclusion at the Opening Award Ceremony. The study captured unique sex-specific causal brain dynamics associated with fatigue in older men and women! We are so thankful that HFES encourages and recognizes such efforts toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and fosters those commitments into the best practices in research. Oshin also was awarded the HFES student members with honors. Way to go!
The excitement did not slow down for day two – Aakash Yadav and Yinsu Zhang were awarded the HART Best Video in the Human–AI–Robot Teaming (HART) Technical Group. This work focuses on understanding the effect of trust in automation using a multi-modal brain-behavioral approach. The participants worked collaboratively with a UR10 robot to assemble planetary gear. Continuous measures of the brain (functional near-infrared spectroscopy), physiology (electrocardiography, eye-tracking, electrodermal activity), and behavior (videorecording) were used to understand the differences in trusting and distrusting conditions. You can watch the video here! Thank you to the HART Technical Group for the recognition and efforts for such activities!
Last but certainly not least, John Hayes was awarded the Best Student-Authored Paper Award in the Training Technical Group. His work focuses on identifying the early predictors of learning in VR-based drone training. Thank you to the Training Technical Group for the recognition.
Many students had the opportunity to showcase their research through lectures and presentations in their Technical Groups and other various sessions. We had 11 lectures, 4 posters, and 1 panel. See below for their presentation topics!
Ranjana Mehta – Panel: Learning Environments with Augmentation and Robotics for Next-gen Emergency Responders (LEARNER) – Human-Centered Intelligent Training for Emergency Responders
Oshin Tyagi – OE3: “Sex Differences in Neuromuscular Fatigue Mechanisms in Older Adults” and HFES Best Paper Lectures- Special Session II: “Uncovering Neuromuscular Fatigue Difference in Older Women and Men: Shedding Light on Causal Brain Dynamics” and LBR105s1: Insights on “neck up” impacts of low back exoskeletons for patient handling tasks: Shedding light on the brain
Shivangi Dwivedi – T3: “Comparing the efficacy of AR-based training with video-based training”
Aakash Yadav – HART4: “Interplay of Cognitive Fatigue and Trust in Human-Robot Collaboration”
Yinsu Zhang – HART4: “Capturing Dynamic Trust Metrics during Shared Space Human-Robot Collaboration: An eye-tracking approach”
John Hayes – T3: “Identifying Early Predictors of Learning in VR-based Drone Training”
Tiash Rana Mukherjee and Yinsu Zhang also had the opportunity to showcase their work during the poster presentation session.
Tiash – “Neural, muscular and perceptual responses with Shoulder Exoskeleton use over days”
Yinsu – “Measurement and Analysis of Dynamic Trust in Automated Vehicles – Lessons Learned, Recommendations, and Pilot Results”
HFES held a poster session for Lab Posters. Lindsey Brenner was able to showcase the NeuroErgo Lab and how we examine the mind-motor-machine nexus to understand, quantify, and predict human state performance when interacting with emerging technologies in safety-critical extreme environments.
Lindsey Brenner, the lab project manager, was also elected as the Web Content Chair for HFE Woman (following Oshin Tyagi’s role).
All in all – HFES was an eventful conference. The NeuroErgonomics Lab is forever grateful for the opportunity to share research and learn from our colleagues in Human Factors and Ergonomics. Each year brings new opportunities, new connections, and new research questions. Congratulations to those who were recognized for their achievements and presented their work. See you next year in Washington DC!
Check out this news feature on the NeuroErgonomics Lab on #HumanAutonomyTeaming – Tracking Trust In Human-Robot Work Interactions.
“As industries begin to see humans working closely with robots, there’s a need to ensure the relationship is effective, smooth, and beneficial to humans. Robots have to be trustworthy and humans have to be willing to trust robots for this relationship to work. Dr. Ranjana Mehta (#TAMUisen) is focusing on understanding the brain-behavior relationships of why and how an operator’s trusting behaviors are influenced by both human and robot factors in her latest National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project on human-robot interactions in safety-critical work domains.”
An alumni graduate, Sarah Hopko, PhD, initiated this line of work in the lab, and our current students Aakash Yadav and Yinsu Zhang continue with the efforts.
Click HERE to read! (Article by: Jennifer Reiley)
A NeuroErgonomics Lab student-led paper by Oshin Tyagi won The Human Factors Prize this year at HFES Human Factors and Ergonomics Society! The paper addressed Equity and Inclusivity in human factors research by shedding light on causal brain dynamics as older women and men perform fatiguing work! This work also highlighted the utility of Neuroergonomics to uncover sex-specific strategies to preserve motor performance that existing ergonomic methods were unable to capture!
Oshin, we are so proud of you and can’t wait for more of such impactful work from you in the future!!
