Assistant Professor
email: keith-gordon@northwestern.edu

PhD Kinesiology, University of Michigan

MA Exercise Science, San Diego State University
BS Exercise Science, Univeristy of California at Davis

Keith Gordon is the Director of the Human Agility Laboratory. He is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences at Northwestern University and a Research Scientist at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital. Dr. Gordon completed post-doctoral training at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. He earned a PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in Exercise and Nutritional Sciences from San Diego State University and a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from U.C. Davis. His research focuses on understanding the principles governing neuromechanical control of human locomotion and applying this knowledge to promote walking recovery following neurological injury. His laboratory employs an interdisciplinary experimental approach using robotic tools to examine whole-body human movement from a biomechanics and motor control perspective.

PT, PhD Rehabilitation Sciences
email: shamali.dusane@northwestern.edu

Shamali received her BS in Physical Therapy in 2010 followed by Masters’ in Physical Therapy with specialization in Cardiovascular and pulmonary sciences in 2014 from Seth G. S. Medical College and KEM hospital, Mumbai, India. Alongside, she gained extensive experience from working in various clinics and tertiary care rehabilitation set-ups in India prior to joining the doctoral program at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Fall 2016. She received her PhD degree in Rehabilitation sciences in Summer 2021 and subsequently started working at the Human Agility Laboratory from July 2021. Her research background includes designing novel perturbation-based balance assessment and training paradigms for fall-risk reduction among people with chronic stroke. Her current project at the Human Agility Lab focusses on balance and gait analysis following high intensity locomotor training using a cable driven robotic device among people with incomplete spinal cord injury. In addition to research, she is a licensed physical therapist in Indiana and Illinois.

PhD Experimental Psychology

email: francis.grover@northwestern.edu

Francis received his BA in Psychology in 2015 from the University of Connecticut with a research focus on human perceptual-motor behavior. He then enrolled in the Experimental Psychology doctoral program at the University of Cincinnati where he received his MA in 2018 and PhD in 2020 studying human perceptual-motor behavior from the perspectives of ecological psychology, complex dynamical systems, and neuromechanics. After graduating he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago studying neurostimulation techniques to repair corticospinal connections after spinal cord injury. His research is broadly centered on the neuromechanical control of human movement. So far, his research has focused on fine motor skill and motor coordination, in particular manual dexterity, in both healthy individuals and those with motor pathology. He joined the Human Agility Lab in April 2022 to continue studying human movement from interdisciplinary behavioral and neuromechanical approaches.

DPT/PhD Student

NU Department of Physical Therapy and Movement Sciences
NU Interdepartmental Neuroscience
email: alexandercates2023@u.northwestern.edu

BA Neuroscience, Hamilton College

I am a Ph.D. student in Northwestern’s Interdepartmental Neuroscience program.  I completed my BA in Neuroscience at Hamilton College where I investigated how mood changes visual perception.  After graduating I joined Halo Neuroscience, a brain stimulation company focused on using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve movement training (particularly with elite athletes and musicians).  In 2018, I left Halo Neuroscience to start my studies here at Northwestern, joining the Human Agility Lab after completing my rotations in 2019. As a member of the Human Agility Lab, my research focuses on how vision informs movement and gait patterns.

Master’s student

NU Department of Biomedical Engineering

B.Tech. Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, CCOEW

email: ruchakulkarni2023@u.northwestern.edu

I’m a graduate student in Northwestern’s Biomedical Engineering program. I graduated from the Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, India, where I received my B. Tech. in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. My background includes projects involving robotics, signal processing and research in biomedical image processing focusing on Alzheimer’s disease. At the Human Agility Lab, my current project focuses on uncertain environments and the reactive components of movement and gait.