News

Congratulations to Jenny on receiving the Distinguished Research Staff Member Award at the 2026 HRS End of Year Awards Celebration in May! Nominated by her colleagues and selected from a pool of five candidates by the HRS Recognition Committee, this honor recognizes her sustained and outstanding contributions to HRS. The Distinguished Research Staff Member Award is presented to individuals who...

Alexa Plotkin, Rylie Severson, research assistants in the LIFT Lab, and Dr. Yogesh Kumaran presented posters at the Center for Brain Injury Recovery & Discovery Research Day (CBIRD) on March 26 th. Alexa’s poster described the feasibility of the online fitness platform, Rylie’s poster focused on the pilot portion of the study, and Yogesh touched on our ongoing work in the clinical trial. This was...

The School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences held its annual research day on April 17, where students from the LIFT Lab gave poster presentations on their research work. Peyton Smith, an undergraduate lab assistant, presented on the use of AI in Physical Therapy, specifically, the importance of prioritizing patient-facing safeguards and AI literacy before clinical automation. Abbie Leverett...

At the 2026 College of Medicine Annual Education Symposium on January 28, Rylie Severson, a research assistant in the lab, presented on the CARESTREAM program as a tool for enhancing undergraduate readiness for health professions. This year’s conference theme, “ Navigating Change with Purpose ”, highlighted work in artificial intelligence, medical education research, teaching innovation, and...

On February 27, Yogesh Kumaran, BS, successfully defended his PhD dissertation, “LIFE Hip: Leveraging In Sim for Fracture Evaluation.” His research explored the use of simulation-driven approaches to enhance the evaluation of hip fractures, with the goal of improving clinical insight in orthopedic care. Through this work, Yogesh contributed to the growing intersection of simulation, engineering...