Carrie L. Peterson, Ph.D.
Dr. Peterson is the director of the Rehabilitation Engineering to Advance Ability Laboratory (REALab) with expertise in the areas of musculoskeletal biomechanics and neurorehabilitation. Dr. Peterson received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), her M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, and completed her postdoctoral training at Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. She has applied her expertise to direct rehabilitation for individuals with post-stroke hemiparesis and individuals with spinal cord injury. On-going work in the REALab also focuses on these patient populations. In addition to her research, Dr. Peterson enjoys contributing to service activities and teaching courses titled: Statics and Mechanics of Materials, Rehabilitation Engineering and Prostheses, Modeling and Simulation of Human Movement, and Biomechanics.
Dr Peterson's curriculum vitae and recent syllabi for her courses can be found here:
Statics and Mechanics of Materials: EGRB 203
Rehabilitation Engineering and Prostheses: EGRB 423/591
Modeling and Simulation of Human Movement: EGRB 491
Contact Dr. Peterson at clpeterson@vcu.edu
Lab Personnel
Hanhsen Zhao
Hanhsen completed his B.S. in biomedical engineering at VCU. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. Hanhsen's doctoral research focuses on modeling and simulation of wheelchair propulsion to estimate joint and muscle forces across the lifespan for individuals with paraplegia. The long term goal of this research is to prevent shoulder pain in wheelchair users.
Contact Hanhsen at zhaohs@vcu.edu
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Yeajin Cho
Yeajin is pursuing her Master's degree. As an undergraduate student at VCU, Yeajin contributed to several REALab projects and co-authored two publications. For her Master's thesis, Yeajin's work focuses on modeling and simulation of wheelchair propulsion with special attention to scaling of musculoskeletal models based on experimental measures of strength and muscle thickness.
Contact Yeajin at choy24@vcu.edu
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Blaize Majdic
Blaize received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from James Madison University and is pursuing a M.S. at VCU. Blaize is investigating the efficacy of non-invasive brain stimulation (intermittent theta burst) to increase corticomotor excitability of the pathway to the biceps in nonimpaired individuals and individuals with cervical spinal cord injury.
Contact Blaize at majdicbc@vcu.edu
Christopher Lynch
Chris received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from North Carolina State University. Chris is pursuing a M.S. and his research interests are in the areas of EEG and embodiment in rehabilitation.
Alumni Graduate Students
Thibault Roumengous
Thibault studied physiology, human movement sciences and rehabilitation towards his undergraduate and Master’s degrees at the University of Toulon and Aix-Marseille University in France. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. His research is focused on developing methodology to reliably quantify voluntary activation in neurologically impaired patients using transcranial magnetic stimulation. In the long term, he aims to develop new ways to investigate neuromuscular control and improve neurorehabilitation.
Neil Mittal
Neil aims to translate his clinical background to improve the tools we have to help patients. He received his M.D. from Śląska Akademia Medyczna w Katowicach in Poland and B.S. and M.S. degrees in biomedical engineering from Drexel University. Neil’s previous research focused on tissue engineering to treat spinal cord injury. He now approaches spinal cord injury rehabilitation from a different angle by investigating the efficacy of non-invasive brain stimulation (intermittent theta burst) to increase corticomotor excitability in individuals with cervical spinal cord injury.
