Selected Publications

Visual impairments are a form of disability that have an increasing, alarming incidence on a global scale. These disabilities yield poor quality of life and severe health consequences, mostly associated with the reduction in mobility. Despite the severity of the situation, options for enhancing the mobility of persons with visual impairments remain limited and low-tech. We focus on the development of new inconspicuous assistive technologies for the navigation and obstacle avoidance of persons with visual impairments, by integrating soft actuators for haptic feedback and a computer vision system for obstacle identification. Further, we seek to provide innovative solutions for the development of assistive technologies, such as multifunctional virtual reality platforms to simulate visual impairments, which can be utilized to raise disability awareness in outreach activities with the general public, test electronic travel aids in a safe and controlled environment, and train persons with visual impairments in orientation and mobility techniques and electronic travel aids.

Many real-world physical, biological, and social systems are formed by a large number of interacting units, from which emergent collective behaviors arise. We are interested in developing techniques to understand the collective behavior of these systems from measurements on some of their units, as well as tools for controlling them and supporting the overall coordination of the units. We apply these methodological advances to a variety of systems, such as robot swarms for collective additive manufacturing and animal groups in different conditions.

Global warming is expected to significantly change the weather and environment of inhabited regions of the world. Sea-level rise will cause the disappearance of many coastal regions, while modifications in the climate will elicit increased droughts, floods, and extreme events. In turn, these environmental factors will push many to migrate to other areas. We are currently working on the development of models that can predict these environmental migrations, to support the design of strategies and infrastructure to mitigate their consequences. These mathematical models ought to capture the complex relationship between environment, infrastructure, society, and economy, elucidating the complex mechanisms that lead to migrations. Ultimately, the results of this effort are crucial for the future of our cities and society.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the world is ill-equipped to face the global epidemics that will likely surge in the next century. Cities play a significant role, serving as hubs for spreading. We still have a poor understanding of how to face these processes while accounting for the national and international mobility characteristic of modern society, as well as the complexity of micro-scale transmission mechanisms. We propose the development of new mathematical tools to describe epidemic spreading in cities, as well as simulation frameworks to evaluate pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions. Our research focuses on developing interpretable results and “what-if” analyses for public health experts and policy makers, which in turn can be translated into concrete strategies and interventions.

The locomotion of fish alone and in groups is full of fascinating questions that are yet to be fully answered. Why are fish schooling? How can they coordinate among themselves to school? How can fish orient themselves against a flow, even in the dark? These are some of the questions that we are trying to answer, through an integrated theoretical, computational, and experimental approach that combines mathematical modeling, computational fluid dynamics simulations, and experiments with live and robotic fish. Not only do we aim to better understand the biology and ethology of fish, but also to translate these discoveries to build more efficient, nature-inspired engineering systems.

Firearm-related violence is a serious public health issue in the United States. As deaths due to firearms have surpassed motor vehicles deaths, it is staggering that little is known about the determinants of firearm-related violence. Through this project, we aim to develop engineering tools to understand and design interventions on the “firearm ecosystem”, the complex interplay between firearm acquisition, firearm-related violence, firearm policies, law enforcement, and public opinion. Our ultimate goal is to unravel the drivers of injuries and deaths related to firearms, informing the design of strategies that can reduce these outcomes.