What inspired you to become a researcher?
I was inspired to become a researcher by my curiosity about why a medical challenge, like poor prosthesis fit, happens. The excitement of turning the explanation for one of those problems into something that actually helps patients with prosthetics is something I find rewarding.
I strive to develop technology that enhances the patient-prosthetist relationship, technology that enhances the humanity of medical care. The unique high-quality sensors, mechanisms and strategies my lab created are foundations. I believe what prosthetists and patients learn from our tools will enhance the care prosthetists deliver to their patients.
Can you give a short overview of your academic career so far?
My career began at the intersection of biomechanics and prosthetic care, measuring pressure and shear stress inside transtibial sockets. My group pioneered this area using techniques we developed ourselves. That led me into the cell biology of skin adaptation, understanding how residual limb tissue reorganizes under sustained mechanical load, and later into biomaterials and tissue-engineered vascular constructs for patients whose skin could not tolerate a prosthesis.
For the past 12 years, my focus has been squarely on solving one of prosthetics' most persistent problems: socket fit. My team has developed sensor systems and automated adjustable sockets that quantify true socket fit in real time, replacing guesswork with data. That work is now reflected in six patents and more than 20 published papers, all pointing to the same conclusion: adjustable, sensor-informed sockets meaningfully improve limb fluid volume stability and socket fit.
What kind of prosthetics do you develop? Are they aimed at particular kinds of injuries?
My research primarily focuses on lower limb transtibial prosthesis users, people who have had an amputation because of a traumatic injury like a motor vehicle accident, a medical complication, or some other cause. Some of our research has focused on military service members’ traumatic injuries, figuring out ways to make prostheses for them that work as well or even better than the limbs they are intended to replace, helping them stay in active service.
Can you tell us about the research you're currently working on?
Right now, I'm focused on advancing our next generation of adjustable socket and sensing technology, refining our ability to ‘sense’ socket fit continuously and translating that data into tools practitioners can use every day. Working alongside our clinical collaborators and manufacturing partners, our team is pushing these sensing platforms from research prototypes toward products that give clinicians quantitative insight into how a socket outside the clinic is actually performing on a patient's limb.
How do advances in the lab translate into better prostheses for patients?
Our sensors give prosthetists something they've never reliably had: an objective window into socket fit. Instead of relying only on a patient's subjective report or a clinician's best guess, sensor-integrated adjustable socket technology lets practitioners see the fit of the socket changing outside the clinic and respond immediately. That will allow patients to have a closer relationship with their prosthetist, which is the basis of good care. I believe this will be the foundation of commercial sockets that adapt to prosthesis users’ socket size changes in real time, relieving patients of the burden of continually thinking about managing their prosthesis.
In your opinion, why is your research important?
Because it closes the gap between what we assume is happening inside a socket and what's actually happening. Integrating sensing technologies shown to enhance socket fit into 3D printed sockets in a fast, accurate, cost-effective way addresses the barriers in fabrication and fitting that have limited remote patient monitoring in the past. This data is packed with opportunities for clinical discovery and knowledge enhancement. Prosthetists and researchers could use it to explore relationships between socket fit, socket design, prosthesis use, clinical performance, or patient history.
Are there any common misconceptions about this area of research? How would you address them?
A common misconception is that the patient-prosthesis system is purely mechanical, in other words that changing one variable produces a predictable effect. It doesn't work that way; people adapt differently, and limb volume and tissue change hour to hour. That variability is why our sensor and adjustable socket work matters: instead of relying on static assumptions, these tools let practitioners see and respond to a patient's actual, changing fit outside the clinic in real time.
How has open science benefited the reach and impact of your research?
Sharing our work openly has broadened who engages with it. More clinicians, patients, and researchers understand the challenges people with limb loss face, and that has brought in collaborators from other fields with tools we hadn't considered.
What do you think are the most important advances that have happened in your field, over your career?
Energy storage and return componentry, online education, adjustable socket technology, 3D-printing, better measurement techniques, and understanding of limb fluid volume management. Adjustable, sensor-enabled, 3D-printed sockets are, I believe, the advance with the most room left to grow.
What are some of the areas of research you'd like to see tackled in the years ahead? Are there new techniques or materials you're particularly excited about?
I'd like to see our field close the distance between promising sensor technology and everyday clinical use. My focus going forward is fine-tuning our ability to ‘sense’ socket fit with enough precision and simplicity that practitioners can rely on it in routine care. Working with the prosthetics industry, we're aiming to design tools that help practitioners create excellent-fitting sockets from the start, flag when a socket may be developing a fit issue, and give practitioners quantitative insight into how patients are actually using and living with their prosthesis day-to-day. I see this as just the first step toward a generation of data-driven, adjustable prosthetic care.
Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences
Experimental study
People
Quick Fabrication of 3D-Printed Prosthetic Sockets with Embedded Sensors to Track Limb Motion
21-Sep-2026
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.