Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory

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.

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.

Guidelines for undergraduate research in the lab:

• Highly motivated, curious, and independent individuals will be recruited. You must be persevering, tenacious, resourceful, responsible, attentive to detail, and responsive to guidance. You will not be told exactly what to do on a day to day basis, but you are expected to follow advice that is given and maintain a reasonable rate of progress. You are not expected to know anything coming in to the lab, but you are expected to learn what you need to know.

• Freshmen and sophomores preferred, juniors considered. Seniors need to do some serious convincing that senior projects, grad/med school applications, job searches, and senioritis, will not be impediments to research progress.

• Research is not like a class; it usually takes a semester to get oriented to the ways of the lab, and required basic knowledge and skills to finish a project. Therefore: a minimum of 2 semesters and 3 credit hours or 10 hours/week commitment is required . Summer work is encouraged. The first semester is probationary; if things are not working well after 1 semester, I reserve the right to terminate the project.

• You can volunteer, receive academic credit, or receive a fellowship to work in the lab. PURA award deadlines are usually due about half a semester in advance. However, it is not likely that you will receive a PURA two semesters in a row. You may be considered for paid work in the lab only after 2 exemplary semesters working in the lab.

• Your grade will be based on your final presentation at a lab meeting, your weekly presentation at lab meetings, contribution to discussion of lab meetings, net results of your semester's work, and the usefulness and clarity of your final report. Consistent progress over the semester is more highly regarded than heroic efforts at the end of the semester.

• You will be assigned a graduate student mentor to whom you will report directly and receive guidance. In return for their mentorship, you will help the graduate student with their research. This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the lab and gain a background to pursue your individual projects.

How to apply:

Discuss with Dr. Torres-Oviedo about projects in the Lab. Most are projects that will take a least two or three semester for you to make a contribution. Please send an e-mail with the following information to Dr. Torres-Oviedo ( gelsyto@pitt.edu ).

• Your name and contact information

• Your major, GPA, and expected graduation date

• Courses taken and grades (or attach an unofficial transcript).

• A short essay (1-2 pages) on why you want to do research and some information on what kind of research you would like to do. For example, you like building things, programming, writing, electronics, any previous research experience or projects, any work or volunteer activities you have had. If you could do anything in biomedical engineering or another field, what would it be, (i.e. what would be the coolest project you could think of). Give us an idea of something scientific that you read about and thought was interesting.

• Which projects are interesting to you? Why? Any comments or questions you have about the projects.

• Name of some references and contact information

• Anything else you would like to tell my group about yourself

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 bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. Adwoa is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Bioengineering with research interests in neurorehabilitation and the generalization of motor learning.

Her work focuses on understanding how motor adaptations transfer across different contexts and identifying factors that promote or limit this generalization. Adwoa aims to inform more effective rehabilitation strategies that enhance the carryover of learned motor skills to real-world settings.

Outside of the lab, Adwoa enjoys reading, 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!

Anna Anello, B.S., B.A Graduate Student

Email: ana532@pitt.edu

Anna received her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and her Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science at Kent State University. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Bioengineering with a track in neural engineering. Anna is interested in neurorehabilitation and understanding how neurodegenerative diseases impact motor learning and adaptation. Outside of the lab, Anna enjoys hiking, traveling, skiing, and cooking.

Elan Albalak, B.S. Graduate Student

Elan is a Pre-Med student currently pursuing a M.S at the University of Pittsburgh in Clinical Exercise Physiology. He joined the Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory in the spring of 2025. His current research focuses on if gait can be a pre-determinant for neurological impairments such as dementia. Outside of the lab Elan likes playing soccer, working out, and dancing.