Faculty & Staff
Dr. Blake Ashby, Program Chair
Program Chair, Biomedical Engineering
Professor, Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Utah State University, 1998
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2000
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2004
Dr. Blake Ashby’s area of specialty is biomechanics. Prior to joining GVSU, he worked several years as a biomechanical engineer at Exponent Failure Analysis Associates in Phoenix, Arizona, and at Woolley Engineering Research Corporation in Provo, Utah, providing technical expertise in the areas of injury biomechanics, sports biomechanics, occupant kinematics, accident reconstruction, vehicle dynamics, component and systems testing, and computer simulation of human movements. Dr. Ashby has collaborated with the Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy programs at GVSU on projects investigating work-related musculoskeletal disorders in sonographers and the limits of stability in sitting for children and adults. Other research projects include the biomechanics of human jumping and the effect of laminectomies on improving gait and balance.
Email: [email protected]
Location: 325 John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering
Phone: (616) 331-6753
Dr. Princewill Anyalebechi
Professor, Product Design & Manufacturing Engineering
Email: [email protected]
Location: 347 Kennedy Hall of Engineering
Phone: (616) 331-6405
Dr. John Farris
Professor, Product Design & Manufacturing Engineering
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Lehigh University, 1987
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Lehigh University, 1993
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Rhode Island, 1998
Dr. John Farris focuses on medical device design. He works in an ongoing collaboration with the Lincoln Developmental Center, a Grand Rapids public school serving approximately 120 severely impaired students, and Mobility Opportunities Via Education/Experience (MOVE). Through this collaboration, they have developed the prototype for a lean-activated wheelchair that responds to the user’s upper-body deflection as it improves trunk strength. Full-time graduate students in GVSU’s Biomedical Engineering program are playing a key part in getting this wheelchair to production as they work with Dr. Farris to improve its design as they participate in translational research.
Email: [email protected]
Location: 213 Innovation Design Center
Phone: (616) 331-7267
Dr. Yunju Lee
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering & Physical Therapy
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, 2002
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 2004
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, 2014
Dr. Yunju Lee's research focuses on identifying mechanisms of human movement, underlying risk factors for musculoskeletal injury and motor impairments, and designing biomedical robotic devices to assist in rehabilitation as clinical treatment. She graduated summa cum laude from Pusan National University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and earned her M.S. with her master thesis on Surgical Robotics from KAIST. She worked as a Mechanical Design Engineer in South Korea and completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering studying in areas of Biomechanics and Human Movements at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) and in the Department of Physical Therapy at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She currently work as a joint appointment in the School of Engineering, Padnos College of Engineering and in the Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions. She is co-directing the Biomechanics and Motor Performance Lab (BMPL) as directing and advising with research projects for both students and faculty in GVSU.
Biomechanics and Motor Performance Laboratory (BMPL) – www.gvsu.edu/biomechanicslab/
Email: [email protected]
Location: 345 John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering
Phone: (616) 331-6043
Dr. M. M. Azizur Rahman
Professor, Electrical Engineering
Email: [email protected]
Location: 349 Kennedy Hall of Engineering
Phone: (616) 331-6664
Dr. Samhita Rhodes
Director, School of Engineering Graduate Program
Professor, Electrical & Biomedical Engineering
B.E., Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Pune, 1994
M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University, 1997
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University, 2003
Postdoctoral Anesthesiology Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, 2007
Dr. Rhodes’ expertise is in biomedical signal modeling and advanced image processing techniques. Her collaborative work includes analysis of EEG and ECoG signals to model mechanisms of epilepsy with neurosurgeons at Spectrum Health, quantifying the benefits of power mobility training in children with multiple developmental disorders, applying image processing techniques to develop algorithms for CT image registration, and analyzing neural correlates of postural stability from EMG signals with researchers in the Biomechanics Performance Laboratory. As a recipient of an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant, she has investigated advanced signal processing techniques to characterize cardiac dysrhythmias.
Email: [email protected]
Location: 253 John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering
Phone: (616) 331-6267
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