About Me

Hello, I am Rachel Gehlhar Humann, an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota where I lead the Humann Bionics Lab that investigates control methods for powered prosthetic legs. I conducted my postdoctoral research in the Anatomics Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles under the advisement of Dr. Tyler Clites. I earned my PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 2022 . There I worked in the Advanced Mechanical Bipedal Experimental Robotics Lab (AMBER Lab) under the advisement of Dr. Aaron D. Ames. My research was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. 

For my PhD research I focused on developing and implementing nonlinear control methods for a powered prosthetic leg. I enjoyed working on both the theoretical and experimental side of this project, establishing formal guarantees of stability for prosthesis control methods and realizing these control methods on hardware through coding, sensor integration, and experimental testing. I also love creating scientific presentations, teaching, and mentoring students. If you're interested in discussing my research with me, please contact me at rghumann@umn.edu!