Engineering Student Wins ASME Robotics Prize

Kamran Shamaei is walking proud this fall, having just won first prize in the Robotics - Graduate Division of the 2013 ASME Student Mechanism & Robot Design Competition. Shamaei, a SEAS Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering, won for a robotic orthosis that can restore the natural function of a knee impaired by, for example, spinal cord injury, stroke, or trauma.

Originally from Iran, Shamaei earned a degree at Iran University of Science and Technology before attending Switzerland's ETH Zurich. His research at Yale, conducted under the supervision of Aaron Dollar, the John J. Lee Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, focuses on robotic orthotics, prosthetics, and exoskeletons, and Shamaei's project, funded under the Defense Medical Research and Development Program, could also be used as an exoskeletal device to enhance the performance of healthy users.

ASME, a not-for-profit professional organization founded as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, sponsored the competition at the organization's International Design Engineering Technical Conference, held in Portland, Ore., from August 4-7, 2013.