I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Northwestern University, working with Profs. J. Edward Colgate and Michael Peshkin. My research centers on developing innovative sensing and actuation devices for haptics, robotics, and human-computer interaction. My work has earned five best paper awards and nominations at premier IEEE venues and has been featured in top interdisciplinary engineering journals including Science Robotics and Science Advances.
Prior to working at Northwestern, I completed my Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, under the direction of Prof. Yon Visell. My dissertation work was internationally recognized by the EuroHaptics Society as the Best Ph.D. Thesis in the field of haptics for 2024. Before moving into haptics, I contributed to research on spatial audio rendering, perception, and evaluation at the Music and Auditory Research Lab at New York University, where I received a master’s degree in Music Technology.
Research Overview
Capturing and reproducing visual and auditory information fundamentally changed how we interact with the world. Advances in capturing and reproducing touch information could drive a similar transformation in robotics and human-computer interaction, while deepening our understanding of how we interact physically with the world. My research centers on advancing touch-based technologies, with the goal of shaping what this future looks and feels like. I develop tactile sensors to enhance robotic dexterity, investigate the science of dexterous manipulation, and identify principles for haptic feedback design; I create haptic displays to reproduce captured touch information, expand the expressiveness of consumer technologies like touchscreens, and discover the limits of touch perception.
News
September 2026 - I’ll be attending IROS this year and presenting some of my research on ultrasound-based tactile sensors at the Enhancing Dexterous Manipulation Through Haptic Feedback workshop on Thursday, October 1. We also have a recent RA-L paper that will be presented as part of the Optical and Neuromorphic Tactile Sensing session and a second poster on leveraging spatially distributed haptic displays for teleoperation! Looking forward to connecting at the conference!
August 2026 - I’ll be on the faculty job market this year, and I’m excited to connect with different universities interested in haptics, tactile sensing, solid mechanics, dexterous robotics, and human-computer interaction! If you know of any open positions, please reach out!
July 2026 - We have two new preprints out on arXiv! The first is on engineering metamaterials for delivering high-fidelity multi-touch haptic feedback on rigid plates. The second is on leveraging a high-resolution tactile sensor and 32-DoF haptic display for high-performance teleoperation.
April 2026 - Our paper on how skin biomechanics shapes the sense of touch is out in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface! Congratulations to Neeli Tummala and all our co-authors. Check out the paper to learn more.
January 2026 - Making science more accessible is something I care a lot about, so I’m especially proud of Rohan’s work on our new toolbox for calibrating tactile sensors. Check out 3D Cal to help get you started working with tactile sensors!
October 2025 - Our paper on high-resolution tactile displays is out in Science Robotics! Congratulations to Max Linnander and all our co-authors. To learn more about using light to remotely actuate tactile pixels in a kilopixel haptic display, check out the paper!
August 2025 - I had a great trip to Europe for two invited talks! First up was the Tactile Sensing and Processing Summer School, hosted by Roberto Calandra and TU Dresden. If you’re a student interested in tactile sensing, I can’t recommend it enough. Take a look at the 2026 school! I then visited Michaël Wiertlewski’s group at TU Delft to share my dissertation research and see their work on haptics and robotic manipulation. Thanks to both hosts for having me!
July 2025 - My dissertation, “Wave-Mediated Haptics: Leveraging Wave Transport for Dynamic Tactile Feedback,” received the EuroHaptics Society’s Best Ph.D. Thesis Award for dissertations completed in 2024! It was an honor to be able to give an award talk on that research at the 2025 IEEE World Haptics Conference in Suwon, Korea.
May 2024 - I just moved to Chicago to start my postdoc! I’m looking forward to working with Profs. J. Edward Colgate and Michael Peshkin at the Northwestern University Haptics Lab. If you’re in the area, definitely reach out!
April 2024 - Our paper on data-driven modeling of tissue dynamics won Best Technical Paper at the 2024 IEEE Haptics Symposium! Congratulations to my co-first author Neeli Tummala and all our co-authors.
July 2023 - Our paper “Rendering Dynamic Source Motion in Surface Haptics via Wave Focusing” won Best Transactions on Haptics Short Journal Paper at the 2023 IEEE World Haptics Conference!
June 2023 - Our paper on designing wide-bandwidth, high-force electromagnetic haptic actuators is out in Sensors and Actuators A: Physical. Check it out here!
March 2023 - I’m excited to announce that our work on how non-contact haptics is shaped by skin biomechanics was recently published in Science Advances!
March 2022 - Our paper on decoding tactile sign language from vibrations transmitted through the skin was named runner-up for Best Technical Paper at the 2022 IEEE Haptics Symposium! Congratulations to Stejara Dinulescu and all co-authors.
March 2022 - Our paper “Tactile Echoes: Multisensory Augmented Reality for the Hand” was named a Best Application Paper Finalist by IEEE Transactions on Haptics!
March 2022 - Transitioning a conference from in-person to remote can be quite a challenge, so I’m happy to report that the 2022 IEEE Haptics Symposium, which I helped organize as Web Chair, went exceptionally well! You can catch the archived livestream on the conference website.
March 2020 - Our paper on focusing shear waves in soft solids to create a haptic display won Best Technical Paper at the 2020 IEEE Haptics Symposium!