Mitra Hartmann

Mitra J.Z. Hartmann is a professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. She specializes in robotics, sensory acquisition behaviors, sensorimotor integration, and neuroethology. Her lab focuses on understanding sensory signals produced by whiskers and applying similar principles to robotics.[1][2][3] [4][5] [6]

Career

Hartmann earned a B.S. in applied and engineering physics at Cornell University and a PhD in integrative neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She was a computational neurobiology postdoc at Caltech and a bio-computing postdoc at the Jet Propulsion Lab. She joined the faculty at Northwestern in 2003 and won the McCormick School of Engineering Teacher of the Year Award in 2009, 2010, and 2011.[7]

She became an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellow in 2017 and is an editorial board member for the Journal of Neurophysiology, a programming committee member for the Barrels Society, and a National Institutes of Health SMI study section member.[8][9]

Research

See also: Whisker barrels

Hartmann focuses on animal whiskers and how information about touch is sent from the whisker to the brain, and whether similar techniques could be applied to robots.[1] In July 2017, she and her team authored a paper analyzing how artificial whiskers could be added to robots, allowing them to map their environment by touch rather than sight. [1][10]

This is multi-disciplinary research and her lab is made up of neuroscientists, mechanical engineers, biomedical engineers, and civil engineers, among others. In April 2021, she published a paper in PLOS Computational Biology about how whiskers bend in an S shape when whisking and signals are transmitted from the base of the follicle, activated when the whisker is pushed against it, to the brain. This research may eventually be able to be applied to helping people with brain injuries or who have suffered from strokes regain the ability to walk.[11]

She currently holds four patents:[12]

  • Sensing device with whisker elements (US 7,774,951, 2010)
  • Object profile sensing (US 8,109,007, 2012)
  • Sensing device with whisker elements (US 8,448,514, 2013)
  • Systems, methods, and apparatus for reconstruction of 3-D object morphology, position, orientation and texture using an array of tactile sensors (US 8,504,500, 2013)

References

  1. ^ a b c Simon, Matt. "Want a Robot That Can Really Feel? Give It Whiskers", Wired, 14 July 2017. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  2. ^ Northwestern University Master of Science in Robotics. "Five Minutes With Professor Mitra Hartmann", Northwestern University, 9 October 2018. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  3. ^ Krisch, Joshua A. "E-Whiskers Have Arrived to Fulfill All Your Robot Cat Dreams", Popular Mechanics, 20 January 2014. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  4. ^ Morris, Amanda. "Rat Whiskers Shed Light on How Neurons Communicate Touch", Northwestern University, 2 August 2016. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  5. ^ Nield, David. "A Genius New Simulation Has Revealed More on How Whiskers Actually Work", ScienceAlert, 10 April 2021. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  6. ^ PLOS. "First-of-its-kind mechanical model simulates bending of mammalian whiskers", ScienceDaily, n.d. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  7. ^ VideoLectures.net. "Mitra Hartmann", Videolectures.net, n.d. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  8. ^ Morris, Amanda. "Five Faculty Members Elected to Medical and Biological Engineering Elite ", Northwestern University, 16 February 2017. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  9. ^ American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). "Mitra J. Hartmann, Ph.D. To be Inducted into Medical and Biological Engineering Elite", AIMBE, 7 March 2017. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  10. ^ Huet, Lucie A.; Rudnicki, John W.; Hartmann, Mitra J.Z. (2017). "Tactile Sensing with Whiskers of Various Shapes: Determining the Three-Dimensional Location of Object Contact Based on Mechanical Signals at the Whisker Base". Soft Robotics. 4 (2): 88–102. doi:10.1089/soro.2016.0028. PMC 5467137. PMID 28616371.
  11. ^ "Sensory and Neural Systems Engineering", Northwestern University, 2012. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
  12. ^ Northwestern University. "Mitra Hartmann", Northwestern University, n.d.. Retrieved on 13 June 2021.
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