Human Performance and Neuro-Engineering Laboratory

Dr. Chowdhury is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Texas Tech University. He works on traumatic brain injury, helmet design, musculoskeletal health biomechanics, virtual/augmented reality applications in rehabilitation, exoskeleton and prosthetic design and evaluation, operator fatigue and stress, and rehabilitation engineering. His special focuses are threefold: (1) human-centered designing of tools, products, and technologies to augment human comfort and safety by identifying materials and technologies that reduce the likelihood of traumatic injuries to the brain and other human body parts; (2) identifying the multifaceted effects of fatigue (both physical and mental) on neuromuscular and visuomotor dynamics for both health and disabled population groups; and (3) understanding the mechano-physiological mechanism of injuries in order to develop prevention and treatment protocols that reduce the incidence of traumatic injuries to the human body. The goals of his research are to discover new scientific knowledge, techniques, and approaches and then instantiate them in product and work design processes to improve human ability and performance. He is the current Chair-Elect of the Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, USA for the 2021 - 2022 term. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles for reputed journals, including Human Factors, Journal of Biomechanics, Safety Science, Ergonomics, and Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology. So far, he has secured funding from the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology and the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health. 

Laboratory Director

Suman K. Chowdhury, Ph.D.

Office: IMSE 217

Research Interests:

• Dynamics and Neural Control of the Musculoskeletal System

• Neuromuscular Fatigue Analysis and Modeling

• Traumatic brain injuries

• Exoskeleton, helmet, robotics, and prosthetic design

• Virtual/Augmented reality biomechanics

• Musculoskeletal health modeling

Education and Training:

• Assistant Research Scientist, Industrial Engineering, Texas A&M University, (2017 – 2019)

• Postdoctoral Researcher, Mechanical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, (2016 – 2017)

• Ph.D., Industrial Engineering, West Virginia University, (2016)

• M.S., Industrial Engineering, West Virginia University, (2012)

• B.S., Industrial Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, (2006)

Ph.D. Students

Leonardo Tchen Wei

leonardo.wei@ttu.edu

Education:

• B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015)

Research Interests:

• Biomechanics and motor control

• Neuromuscular fatigue analysis and modeling 

• Traumatic brain injury

• Sports biomechanics

Felipe Zambrini Santos

felipe.santos@ttu.edu

Education:

• Injury prevention and performance improvement

• Neuromuscular fatigue analysis and modeling 

• Computational biomechanics

• Prosthetics, exoskeleton, and helmet design.

• Sports Biomechanics

Mundhir Nasser Al Alawi

Mundhir.Al-Alawi@ttu.edu

• M.S., Engineering Management, California State University Northridge (2016)

• B.S. (Hons.), Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, Glamorgan University, Cardiff (2012)

Hossein Bahreinzad

hbahrein@ttu.edu

• Computational and experimental biomechanics

• Finite element modeling

• Ergonomics and human factors engineering

• Robotics, exoskeleton, prosthetic, and helmet design

Gustavo Marin Paulon

gpaulon@ttu.edu

• B.S., Mechatronics Engineering, University of São Paulo, Brazil (2019)

• Computational Biomechanics

• Neuromuscular fatigue analysis and modeling

• Numerical Simulations

• Sports Biomechanics

• Traumatic Brain Injury

Antonio S. Fernandes

antofern@ttu.edu

Elizabeth Ogunkola

elogunko@ttu.edu

• Machine learning

• Traumatic brain injury

• Magnetic resonance imaging

• Biomechanics

Master's Students

Sneha Shrestha

snshrest@ttu.edu

• B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal (2016)

• Human-centered designing

• Ergonomics and Biomechanics

• CAD/CAM/CAE

• System Analysis and Systems Thinking

Research Interests:
 

Undergraduate Students

Kieran Binkley

kieran.binkley@ttu.edu

Kathryn Bell

kathrbel@ttu.edu

• Biomechanics

• Sustainable Energy

• Bio-inspired Design of Engineering

Lab Visitor

Ananya Madhavaram

Education:

• Biomechanics

• Robotics

Alumni

Syed Tanzim Mubarrat

• B.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (2017)

• M.S., Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering, Texas Tech University (2021)

• Moved to Purdue University, West Lafayette to pursue Ph.D. in Computer & Information Technology (Fall 2021)

Oluwatosin Opafunso