Brenna Argall

Brenna Argall is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University with joint appointments in the Departments of Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. She is also a Faculty Research Scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the nation’s premier rehabilitation hospital. Her research focuses on robotics autonomy, machine learning, and human rehabilitation, particularly in developing assistive and rehabilitation robotics that utilize shared control and interface-aware intelligence to enhance user autonomy.

• Education:
  • Ph.D. in Robotics (2009), Carnegie Mellon University
  • M.S. in Robotics (2006), Carnegie Mellon University
  • B.S. in Mathematics (2002), Carnegie Mellon University

Research Interests: Argall's work sits at the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and rehabilitation. Key themes include trust-based control systems, dynamic autonomy allocation, and human-in-the-loop machine learning. Her lab, the Assistive & Rehabilitation Robotics Laboratory (argallab), develops semi-autonomous wheelchairs, robotic arms, and adaptive control systems tailored to users’ physical and cognitive abilities. Projects emphasize customizable shared control, intent inference, and human-robot collaboration.

Article Trends: Recent publications highlight advancements in shared autonomy, interface-aware robotics, and human-robot co-adaptation. Key areas include 7-DoF robot arm teleoperation, eye gaze tracking for control, high-dimensional body-machine interfaces, and trust-based dynamic control allocation, reflecting her lab’s focus on user-centric AI and rehabilitation technology.

Scientific Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2016)
• Crain's Chicago Business 40 under 40 (2016)
• NSF Convergence Accelerator Phase 1 & 2 Awards (2022, 2024)
• AIMBE College of Fellows (2023)
• Office of Naval Research (ONR) Grant

Advising & Grants: Argall advises students in the Masters of Science in Robotics program and has secured significant funding from NSF, NIH, and ONR for projects on self-driving wheelchairs, intent disambiguation, and trust-aware autonomy.

Labs & Teams: As founder and director of the argallab, she leads a multidisciplinary team at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The lab’s mission is to advance human ability through robotics autonomy, focusing on motor-impaired users and human-robot co-adaptation.