Presenter

Megan Conrad is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Detroit Mercy where she leads the Eick Center for Assistive Technology and teaches courses related to Biomedical Engineering and Product Design. She has earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University, a MS in Systems Engineering (UPenn) and a BS in Industrial Engineering (Marquette). Prior to Detroit Mercy, Dr. Conrad studied Hand Rehabilitation as a postdoc in the Sensorimotor Performance Program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (presently named the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab) and Northwestern University. Dr. Conrad's research interests are centered around the assessment of human performance in healthy and disabled populations as it pertains to therapy, work and product design. Specifically, she studies hand and arm function with the goal of identifying techniques that will allow elderly and disabled individuals to remain independent at home and work. Dr. Conrad has several peer-reviewed publications relating hand function to neurological injury/rehabilitation and assessing the ergonomics and human factors of products requiring manual interaction. Dr. Conrad has received extramural funding as PI or co-I on projects supported by the AHA, NIH, FDA, and NSF.