Keya Ghonasgi

Keya Ghonasgi is an incoming Assistant Professor at Rice University's Mechanical Engineering Department, starting July 2025. Currently serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech's EPIC Lab, their research focuses on human-robot partnerships for rehabilitation and performance augmentation using wearable exoskeletons. Ghonasgi holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (2023) and an M.S. from Columbia University (2018).

Education includes:

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin (2023)
• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics & Controls), Columbia University (2018)
• B.E. Mechanical Engineering and M.S. Mathematics, BITS Pilani, Goa, India

Research interests emphasize:

• Reinforcement learning for human-exoskeleton interaction analysis
• Design of ergonomic wearable robotics interfaces
• Motor learning processes in human-robot systems

Key publications include work on exoskeleton hand interfaces, kinematic coordination analysis, and human-robot control laws. Notable awards:

• 2022 Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering (Stanford)
• 2023 CalTech Young Investigator Lecturer
• NSF M3X Grant Recipient

Grants and collaborations include funding from UT Austin, NSF, Meta Reality Labs, and Google Brain. Advising focus: Human-robot collaboration dynamics and assistive technologies.