M.K. MacLean PhD (Rai)

I am an assistant professor in the Biomechanical Engineering department at the University of Twente. My research vision is to A) improve walking ability for people with mobility difficulties through wearable robots, and B) advance our understanding of normal and pathological human movement.

The main focus of my current research is to use neuromechanical insights to develop wearable robots to improve walking of people with motor control issues like Parkinson’s disease. A secondary focus of my work is understanding (and improving) how we interact with and learn to use wearable robots. I am also interested in developing continuous monitoring techniques for real-world evaluation of pathological gait, wearable robotics, and learning effects.

My academic career began with a Master’s of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Glasgow (Scotland), with my Master’s thesis research carried out at Niigata University (Japan). I joined my PhD lab at the University of Michigan (USA), where I received a MSci in kinesiology when our lab transitioned to the University of Florida (USA). My PhD thesis on the biomechanics of walking with perturbations was completed in 2020. I held two postdoctoral positions (City University of New York (USA) and Newcastle University (UK)) before starting as an assistant professor at UT in June 2022.

Organisations

• Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET), Neuromechanical Engineering (NE)