Keynote

Homayoon Kazerooni

Dr. Kazerooni is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as the director of the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory. With more than 30 years of mechanical engineering experience and a doctorate degree from MIT, he is a leading expert in robotics, control sciences, exoskeletons, human-machine systems and augmentation, bioengineering, mechatronics design, intelligent assist devices, and power and propulsion. Prior to his more well-known research on lower extremity exoskeletons, Dr. Kazerooni led his team at Berkeley to successfully develop robotics systems that enhanced human upper extremity strength.  The results of this work led to a new class of intelligent assist devices that are currently used by manual laborers in distribution centers and factories all over the world. These technologies are currently marketed worldwide by leading material handling corporations.

In addition to his teaching work and research experience in a academia, Dr. Kazerooni is also an entrepreneur. In 2005, he founded Ekso Bionics. He is the founder and chairperson of U.S. Bionics, a VC, industry, and government funded company that provides accessible, affordable exoskeletons for the industrial, medical, and military markets.

Michael Goldfarb

Dr. Goldfarb directs the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics at Vanderbilt University, which specializes in the development and assessment of robotic technology to improve the quality of life and/or quality of care for people with physical disabilities. The Center’s research includes the development and assessment of robotic lower limb prostheses that offer improved gait biomechanics across a wide range of activities to transtibial and transfemoral amputees; the development and assessment of multigrasp hand prostheses that offer enhanced dexterity to upper extremity amputees; the development and assessment of lower limb exoskeletons to provide legged mobility to individuals with paraplegia; and the development of lower limb exoskeletons as a therapeutic intervention to provide overground gait retraining for individuals with lower limb hemiparesis following stroke.

He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S., Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and B.S., Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona. He has published numerous articles and white papers and is best known for his work in developing the Indego lower-limb exoskeleton.

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