2026
Mar Rodriguez Moreno joins the lab as a PhD student! She is co-advised by Dr. David Reinkensmeyer and supported by a Balsells Fellowship. Welcome Mar!
Michael Thorne completes his Master's thesis. Congratulations Michael!
RAL presents two projects at the 2026 IMSI Capstone Symposium, wrapping up a summer as part of the IMSI Summer Institute. The projects examined changes in spinal excitability under different conditions of walking with an ankle exoskeleton.
RAL gives lab tours and demos for the inaugural UCI OAI Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars (AISS) Summer Academy.
Dr. Voloshina presents at Dynamic Walking 2026.
Annie Vu, Landon Norman, and Devin Ponciano presented their research for the CALIT2 and UCI UROP Interdisciplinary Research Team program at the IRT/MADO Symposium. Congratulations!
Caris Aster receives a 2026 Dr. M. Marlene Godoy Fellowship in Movement Sciences. Congratulations Caris!
Dr. Voloshina presents “Wearable robotics: advances and limitations of restoring mobility” at the UCI Biomedical Engineering seminar series.
Ian Tapia joins the lab as the RAL lab manager. Welcome Ian!
Dr. Christopher Johnson joins the lab as a postdoctoral scholar! Dr. Johnson previously held a postdoctoral position at the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, and before that received his Ph.D. from UC Irvine. Welcome Chris!
RAL gives lab tours and demos for UCI student groups.
Anthony Campoy joins the lab! He will be working on approaches for improving adaptation to assistive devices. Welcome Anthony!
2025
New Paper Read about how people adapt their hopping dynamics in response to changes in frequency and added load.
Kaushal Patel receives an Honorable Mention for the Jim Trolinger Graduate Student Award Endowment. Congratulations Kaushal!
New Paper Read about how uneven terrain and prosthesis stiffness affects gait adaptation in people with unilateral transtibial amputation.
RAL gives a lab tour and demo for the UCI Robotics Camp.
Dr. Voloshina presents at UCI COSMOS.
Erika McPhetridge completes her Master's Thesis. Congratulations Erika!
The UCI HSSoE Engineering+ Society Institute is officially announced! Dr. Voloshina serves as a core founding faculty member.
RAL gives a lab tour for the Davis Magnet School Field Trip.
Erika McPhetridge and Sara Meschi present their posters at the 2025 RehabWeek Conference in Chicago, IL.
Dr. Voloshina and Dr. Borowski are awarded the IVPI@UCI Pilot Grant to evaluate mobility in Orange County.
RAL gives lab tours for the ReachOut TeachOut (ROTO) STEM Day.
Sara Meschi receives the UCI Edwards Fellowship. Congratulations Sara!
Michael Thorne joins the lab. He will be evaluating how changes in visual flow affect adaptation during gait. Welcome Michael!
2024
Dr. Voloshina gives a seminar for the Mathematical Laws of Morphology and Biomechanics Seminar Series.
Lab outing to an escape room!
Meghana Sagare joins the lab! She will be working on evaluating how changes in error during task performance affect learning rate. Welcome Meghana!
Kaushal Patel presents a poster on his design of a dual-actuated assistive and resistive exoskeleton at the 2024 IEEE EMBC conference in Orlando, FL.
Dr. Voloshina presents at UCI COSMOS.
Michael Cazarez completes his Master's thesis. Congratulations Michael!
Dr. Voloshina and Dr. Clites (UCLA) receive a collaborative grant to address the complications of ankle-related disorders using wearable robotic devices. Read more here.
RAL gives lab tours for middle and high school students at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) IGNITE outreach event.
Dr. Voloshina discusses effects of uneven terrain on gait dynamics during the Agile Movements II Workshop at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
Sara Meschi receives the SWE-OC FY24 Graduate Scholarship. Congratulations Sara!
Dr. Voloshina is nominated for the MAE Professor of the Year Award by the Engineering Student Council.
Dr. Voloshina is named one of the UCI Women in Tech Applause Recipients.
Paula Simo completes her Master's project. Congratulations Paula!
Erika McPhetridge joins the lab! She will be working on evaluating how proprioception acuity affects recovery from perturbations during walking. Welcome Erika!
2023
Michael Cazarez joins the lab! He will be working on evaluating step length in real time as a source of biofeedback. Welcome Michael!
The Rehabilitation and Augmentation lab leads and presents at the 2023 Southern California Robotics Symposium.
Paula Simo presents her work on haptic feedback training at the 2023 American Society of Biomechanics Conference.
Dr. Voloshina is named a Hellman Fellow by the Hellman Fellows Fund. Read more here.
Dr. Voloshina is nominated for the MAE Professor of the Year Award by the Engineering Student Council.
New Paper Read about using an inverted pendulum model for predicting navigation uncertainty.
2022
Dr. Voloshina presents at the University of Southern California (USC) Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy Seminar.
RAL renovations are complete and most equipment is installed. We're excited to get started on experiments! See photos of our Bertec treadmill installation below. We also have a Vicon motion capture system and the Humotech emulator system for rapid prototyping of assistive device control. Dr. Voloshina brought her students from MAE 286 into the lab to look into the biomechanics of funny gaits!
RAL heads to the 2022 Southern California Robotics Symposium! Dr. Voloshina presents as a New Faculty Speaker.
Dr. Voloshina presents at the UC San Diego Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminar.
Renovations on the new Rehabilitation and Augmentation Lab space begin! The space used to belong to the UCI HyperXite Team.
Paula Simo Higueras joins the lab through the Balsells Mobility Program. She will be here until the summer to work on her Bachelor's thesis to be submitted to the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Welcome, Paula!
2021
Dr. Voloshina presents virtually at the Ohio State University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminar.
Dr. Voloshina is an invited lecturer for the UCI Uni Stu 3 Freshman Seminar. We had a great discussion on the future and challenges of wearable technology!
Sarasadat (Sara) Meschi joins RAL! She is interested in exploring how biofeedback can improve adaptation to assistive devices. Welcome, Sara!
Dr. Voloshina presents at the Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences Clinical Boot Camp at Northwestern University, on the topic of wearable assistive devices for rehabilitation.
2020
Dr. Voloshina is awarded the Career Development Award by the Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Engineering Research Career Development Program (IREK12). Read more: irek12.org
Dr. Voloshina virtually presents her work at the 2020 American Society of Biomechanics Conference, discussing the effects of exoskeleton assistance in individuals with unilateral transtibial amputation. This work was conducted during her postdoctoral position at the Stanford Biomechatronics Lab.
Prof. Voloshina joins the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Welcome to the Rehabilitation and Augmentation Lab!