Milad Nazarahari, PhD, EIT

Research Interests

I am a mechanical and mechatronics engineer with an interest in biomedical & rehabilitation engineering, optimization, AI, and signal processing, specifically:

1. Developing intelligent autonomous robotic and wearable systems to perform (tele)assessment and deliver personalized (tele)rehabilitation following neurological or musculoskeletal disorders:

   • Remote health and activity monitoring.

   • Objective assessment of upper/lower limb function during daily life like functional tasks or robot-delivered exergames.

   • Mechanistic modelling of motor learning, specifically in human-robot interaction.

   • Assessment-driven personalization of rehabilitation.

   • Affordable and portable robotic systems for (tele)assessment and (tele)rehabilitation.

2. Understanding human neurophysiology and lower/upper limb neuromechanics by probing human sensory, motor and cognitive function and disorders, especially in VR/AR and during exergames.

3. Developing computationally efficient problem-specific heuristic & meta-heuristic optimization algorithms for solving large-scale optimization problems.

Appointments

• Jan 2023 - Present: Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada

Academic Background

• Sep 2021 - Dec 2022: AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Waterloo, Canada

• Sep 2016 - Aug 2021: PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada

• Sep 2012 - Aug 2014: MSc, Mechanical Engineering - Mechatronics, Iran University of Science & Technology, Iran

• Sep 2008 - Aug 2012: BSc, Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science & Technology, Iran

Fellowships & Awards

• AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2021

• Honorary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, 2019

• Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, 2018

• Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship, 2017

Service

• Lead Guest Editor, MDPI Sensors, Special Issue on Advanced Sensing Technologies for Tele-Assessment and Tele-Rehabilitation

Collaborations

• Dr. Hossein Rouhani, University of Alberta

• Dr. Albert Vette, University of Alberta

• Dr. Mahdi Tavakoli, University fo Alberta

• Dr. Arash Arami, University of Waterloo

• Dr. Soo Jeon, University of Waterloo