Graduate Students

We are currently recruiting a graduate student at the master’s or doctorate level for a project that aims to create new understanding for how flooring topography (i.e., “roughness”) influences friction as part of a larger effort to prevent human slipping. The project will primarily focus on updating a multiscale finite element analysis model to predict how the flooring topography influences friction. The student will work in conjunction with a team of material scientists that will be measuring floor topography from the nanometer to millimeter scales. The student may also be involved in collecting mechanical properties of shoe outsole materials and measuring shoe-floor-contaminant friction. This position is available for start dates of January, 2022, June 2022, or September 2022. The student would be able to pursue their degree in either the Mechanical Engineering or Bioengineering department. If interested in the position, please contact: Kurt Beschorner (beschorn@pitt.edu).

If you are interested in becoming a graduate student in our lab, please visit Pitt's Graduate Bioengineering Webpage and contact a faculty member: Dr. Kurt Beschorner (beschorn@pitt.edu), Dr. Rakié Cham (rcham@pitt.edu), Dr. April Chambers (ajcst49@pitt.edu), or Dr. Mark Redfern (mredfern@pitt.edu).

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate research assistants are hired on an ongoing basis. If interested, please send your resume to our Lab Manager, Jenna Trout, at jdm139@pitt.ed