Lab Personnel
Emily Graczyk
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
Biomedical Engineer, Louis Stokes Cleveland
VA Medical Center
2018 PhD in Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
2013 BS in Biomedical Engineering, University of South Carolina
Graduate Students
John Wright
PhD Candidate, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
2016 BS Psychology and Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah
John's research interests lie in the emotional elements of touch and their neural underpinnings.
Preethisiri Bhat
PhD Candidate, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
2020 BS Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley
Preethi is interested in uncovering how somatosensory information is encoded in the cortex, and how this understanding can be used to develop peripheral nerve stimulation patterns that evoke naturalistic cortical activity.
Jonah Mudge
PhD Candidate, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
2021 BS Biomedical Engineering, Minor in Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jonah's research focuses on characterizing proprioceptive percepts in upper-limb amputees implanted with FINEs (Flat Interface Nerve Electrodes). This work aims to benefit amputees by improving proprioceptive feedback in neuroprostheses, thereby maximizing prosthesis dexterity and allowing fuller integration of the prosthesis into the body schema.
Melissa Schmitt
PhD Student, Francis Payne Bolton
School of Nursing
Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
2005 BS Nursing, Kent State University
Melissa currently works with a multi-disciplinary team that applies electrical stimulation to the residual nerves in amputees to provide sensation from prosthetic hands or feet. Her research interest includes seeking to understand the psychosocial experiences of upper limb amputees.
Bronwyn Spilker
PhD Student, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
2022 BSE Biomedical Engineering and Psychology, Minor in Electrical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
Bronwyn studies how learning strategies can be utilized to supplement a biomimicry approach to sensory reeducation to allow participants to more naturally embrace and use ICMS or PNS stimulation in place of lost sensation. She also is interested in developing learning strategies to remap sensory inputs to substitute one stimulation approach to represent a certain information stream, potentially augmenting another available stimulation approach.
Roberto Peralta
PhD Student, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
2022 BS Mechanical Engineering, Minors in Mathematics and French, University of Arizona
Roberto is a BME PhD student co-mentored by Dr. Emily Graczyk and Dr. Dustin Tyler. He is interested in developing biomimetic peripheral nerve stimulation paradigms to improve quality and replicate texture sensations.
Brianna Hutchison
PhD Candidate, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
2019 BS Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan
Brianna is a BME PhD student at Case Western University co-mentored by Dr. Graczyk and Dr. Ajiboye. She is exploring the neural representation of tactile sensation. She is helping the ReHAB team restore upper limb functionality to people with spinal cord injuries, focusing on providing tactile feedback to improve grasp dexterity.
Staff
Jessica Jarvela (née Walrath)
Study Coordinator
MS Pathology, Case Western Reserve University
BS Biology, University of Dayton
Jessica's primary focus is providing administrative support to both the clinical and technical project teams for the laboratory's multiple projects. This includes coordinating test subject scheduling, documentation and maintenance of research data, support completion of regulatory documents for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Institutional Review Board (IRB), and/or project sponsor as required, as well as assist the quality systems engineer and systems engineer in generation of all quality system documentation.
Alexandra Hutchison
Research Nurse and Coordinator
2013 Licensed Practical Nurse, Tri-Rivers Career Center
Alexandra promotes good clinical practices in the conduct of clinical research studies primarily focused on designing and investigating new class III medical devices for neuromodulation. She serves as the patient advocate and point of contact for participants, facilitating accessibility to care, improving quality of life, and answering participant questions about the study.
Aaron Ketting-Oliver
Biomedical Engineer
2021 MS Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
BS Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester
Mount San Antonio College; Cert. Computer Languages: C, Java, HTML
Aaron works as a CRNA connecting the patient to research equipment and looking after their welfare during sessions. He also develop and maintain hardware for our studies and assist with data analysis techniques.
Undergraduate Students
Eric Chen
Undergraduate Researcher
Expected 2023 BS Biomedical Engineering,
Case Western Reserve University
Eric has worked in computational neural modeling of mammalian nerves using the MRG model and is currently working as a lab technician and design advisor for mechanical and hardware manufacturing for various projects in the NEC.
Shifra Narasimhan
Undergraduate Researcher
Expected 2025 BS Biomedical Engineering,
Minor in Electrical Engineering,
Case Western Reserve University
Shifra is a 4th year undergrad who has been a part of the Graczyk Lab since 2019. She most recently led the undergraduate Human Fusions XPRIZE Avatar team in developing a haptic glove.
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William Kaon
Undergraduate Researcher
Expected 2023 BS Biomedical Engineering,
Minor in Electrical Engineering,
Case Western Reserve University
William is interested in somatosensory and proprioception restoration research as these two functions are so crucial to performing activities of daily living. Currently, he helps out in the lab with PCB/enclosure design, testing and assembly.
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Ishika Kanakath
Undergraduate Researcher
Expected 2023 BS Computer Engineering,
Minor in Biomedical Engineering,
Case Western Reserve University
Ishika focuses on hardware design, particularly the UECU switchboard project. As part of the UECU switchboard project, she worked on the soldering and electrical testing and currently working on CAD design using the PCB design software Kicad.
Dylan
Undergraduate Researcher
Expected 2023 BS Biomedical Engineering,
Minor in Electrical Engineering,
Case Western Reserve University
Shifra is a 3rd year undergrad who has been a part of the Graczyk Lab since 2019. She most recently led the undergraduate Human Fusions XPRIZE Avatar team in developing a haptic glove.
Arushi Dugar
High School Researcher
Expected 2025 HS Diploma, Hathaway Brown School
Arushi enjoys working with data and graphs as they allow her to analyze the results and understand what those results mean. She tries to contribute in any way possible and strives to learn from those around her.
Tanya Tebcherani
2021 MS Electrical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
Tanya developed a novel controller for evoking touch with peripheral nerve stimulation. Using models of neural activation, Tanya used optimization to select optimal stimulation parameters to reproduce natural neural responses to touch. As of 2021, Tanya is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Hope College.
Alesia Lambert
2019 BS Psychology, Kent State University
Alesia's primary focus as the Study Coordinator was on acquiring and maintaining IRB approvals and assisting with FDA submissions for several of the lab’s projects. Alesia scheduled participant visits and travel, assists with purchasing, and was also involved in participant recruitment. Alesia has moved on to work at _____