Faculty
Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, PhD Associate Professor Department of Bioengineering
Tel. 412-624-2660 (office) | Email: gelsyto@pitt.edu | Curriculum Vitae
Prof. Torres-Oviedo started her faculty position in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. Prior to that, she completed her postdoctoral training in Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in 2007 and she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001 with a B.S. in Physics.
Dr. Torres-Oviedo is interested in understanding learning mechanisms underlying the adaptation of gait and how to stimulate them to rehabilitate the gait of patients with cortical lesions. She uses psychophysical experiments and computational tools for investigating how prior motor experiences influence how we learn and how we generalize new motor patterns to novel situations. Outside the lab, Dr. Torres-Oviedo enjoys playing with her kids, indoor and outdoor jogging, and watching movies with her husband.
Students
Marcela Gonzalez-Rubio, B.S. Graduate Student
Email: mag356@pitt.edu
Marcela received her Biomedical Engineering degree from the Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito and Universidad del Rosario Bogotá, Colombia in 2017. She moved to Pittsburgh on September 2017 to work on Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory as a research intern. Marcela is now in the lab as a PhD student in the Bioengineering program
Marcela is interested in gait analysis, specifically, biomechanical characterization of gait and how say characterization help assess rehabilitation techniques for patients who are suffering from gait impairments. One of these techniques being adaptation of gait by introduction of perturbations while walking on a treadmill. Outside of the lab, Marcela enjoys reading, travelling, and dancing.
Shuqi Liu, B.S. Graduate Student
Email: shl187@Pitt.edu
Shuqi received her undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Centre College. Shuqi is pursuing her Ph.D. in Bioengineering with a focus on the Neural Engineering track. Shuqi is interested in understanding the impact of aging on motor learning, gait automaticity, and mobility. Her current project involves using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study prefrontal cortex engagement during walking. She is interested to see if interventions like the split-belt treadmill can improve community mobility in older adults.
Outside the lab, Shuqi enjoys hiking, traveling, watching movies, and good food.
Adwoa Amoakowaa Awuah, B.S. Graduate Student
Email: ada157@pitt.edu
Adwoa received her baccalaureate in Biomedical Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. Adwoa is pursuing her Ph.D. in Bioengineering.
Her research interests are in Neurorehabilitation, Motor adaptation and Motor Generalization. Adwoa enjoys singing and watching movies.
Nate Brantly, B.S. Graduate Student
Email: NWB18@pitt.edu
Nate received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2014. He subsequently completed a Whitaker International Program fellowship in the Musculoskeletal Modelling Group at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute in New Zealand before returning to Chicago to work as a Research & Development Engineer at Coapt, designer of a pattern recognition control system for arm prostheses. It was at Coapt that Nate rediscovered a passion for research, which led him to work as a Research Technician in the Bensmaia Lab at the University of Chicago while applying to graduate school. After a time in the Rehab Neural Engineering Labs at Pitt, Nate joined the Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory in April 2023 as a PhD student in the Bioengineering department at the University of Pittsburgh.
Nate is interested understanding impairments in the context specificity of motor learning in individuals who have had a stroke. He more broadly enjoys neuromuscular control of movements and electrophysiology, including EMG analysis. Outside of the lab, Nate enjoys reading, exercising, baseball, and music.
Jiwon Choi, M.S. Graduate Student
Email: jic175@pitt.edu
Jiwon's research background is in bioengineering, beginning as an undergraduate at Purdue University in the Implantable Microsystems Research Lab. During her M.S. in Neural Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, she developed microelectrodes for dopamine detection in the striatum of nonhuman primates to study dopamine’s role in long-term learning.
Now Jiwon is pursuing a Ph.D. in Neural Engineering at Pitt and she aims to contribute in advancing diagnostic and therapeutic tools for individuals with neurological impairments. Outside of lab, Jiwon loves cooking and baking, watching movies, and listening to music!
Staff
Shiloh Struthers, B.S. BRIDGE Program Administrator
Email: sms470@pitt.edu
Shiloh was born and raised in Oil City, Pennsylvania and completed undergraduate studies at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science and Point Park University. Shiloh joined our staff in November 2022 as our BRIDGE Program Administrator. Outside of work she enjoys going on walks, spending time with her husband and two cats, and playing games with friends.