PEOPLE
Principal Investigator
Mehmet Kurt (he/him) is the director of Kurtlab and an Associate Professor at the University of Washington Department of Mechanical Engineering. Mehmet received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey) and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University from 2014 to 2016. Prior to joining UW in 2022, he was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology
Mehmet’s research is focused on biological and biomedical challenges, particularly in the areas of brain biomechanics, neuromechanics imaging, nonlinear systems, and smart biomedical devices. Some examples of his research projects include investigating the nonlinear dynamics of the human brain during head impacts, studying aneurysm stability through aneurysm wall motion imaging, and measuring brain tissue stiffness in vivo through ultra-high resolution MR Elastography in Alzheimer’s Disease.
His awards include the Lucile Packard Children Hospital Postdoctoral Fellowship, Thrasher Research Foundation Early Career Award, Provost’s Early Career Award for Research Excellence and the Thomas Bernard Hall Prize. His research and neuroimaging work has been recognized with prizes and coverage in the popular media, including an NSF Best Scientific Visualization (Vizzie) Award, being named in the 40 under 40 list in Turkey by Fortune Magazine, and an Annals of Biomedical Engineering Editor’s Choice Award. His research group is currently sponsored by multiple grants from NSF, NIH and DoD. Mehmet is active in a variety of initiatives to increase the participation and visibility of LGBTQ+ students in STEM, including through mentorship programs and outreach events.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Tianyi Ren, PhD
(He/Him)
tr1@uw.edu
He received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical engineering from Southwest Jiaotong University (China) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical engineering & Mechanics from Lehigh University. After that, he joined the University of Washington as a Postdoctoral fellow in Nov 2022 under the supervision of Dr. Kurt.
During his PhD, he investigated the mechanoregulation model of bone fracture healing, using a combination of modeling, optimization, and image analysis tools. Currently, his research is mainly focused on the application of AI/ML in medical images.
Graduate Students
Em Triolo graduated from The College of New Jersey with a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering in May of 2019. During their time at The College of New Jersey, they worked on developing and performing human trials of a robotic exoskeleton for the human hand to augment grip and pinch strength. They earned their Masters of Engineering, specializing in Medical Device Engineering, from Stevens Institute of Technology while a member of KurtLab. They are now a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Washington advised by Dr. Kurt. They are currently researching the use of ultra-high field MRI to determine the mechanical properties of the human brain, volunteering as a student researcher with BMEII at Mount Sinai Hospital. Read more about their projects at their website emily.thetriolos.com.
Fargol graduated from the Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT, Tehran, Iran) with a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2014. In her bachelor’s project, she started to study the mechanical behavior of the brain tissue. During her Master’s in Biomedical Engineering at AUT, she worked on modeling the anisotropic behavior of brain tissue. She also has three years of experience working in the field of orthopedic biomechanics at orthopedic clinics. She is now a Ph.D. student in Kurtlab, advised by Prof. Kurt.
Agamdeep earned his Bachelor's Degree in Physics from Purdue University in 2020 and a Master's Degree in Computer Science and Machine Learning from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2022. His master's work focused on applications of computer vision-based deep neural networks for biomedical imaging. Agam developed a passion for computer science and machine learning applications to real-world problems while working as a software developer during his final years at Purdue. He is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, advised by Dr. Kurt, working on generative AI for biomedical data synthesis.
Caitlin graduated from the University of Washington (Seattle) with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2022, with a specialization in biomechanics. In her capstone project, she worked with clinical partners and patients at Swedish Medical Center. She helped design and prototype a device that allows patients with neurological diseases, such as ALS, to independently move their blankets up and down with limited muscle function. Through this project, she competed in the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge and the Dempsey Startup competition at UW. She also worked on effort characterization in transtibial prosthetic users and dynamic modeling of running shoe midsole materials. Caitlin is now a PhD student in Kurtlab, advised by Dr. Kurt.
Juampablo graduated from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque with dual Bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics in 2022, and completed his MS in Mechanical Engineering in 2023. During his time at UNM, he worked on research projects developing machine learning models to aid in turbulence modeling and accelerate power grid survivability analysis. He has participated in internships with the Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL), the Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL), and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL). In 2023, he received the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF), and began as a PhD student in the Kurtlab. Now, he develops generalizable tumor segmentation models to improve medical outcomes in low-resource settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa, and is one of the organizers of the COMPASS seminar series.
Dickson graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with Bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience and Biology in June of 2019. During his time at UCLA, he worked on electrophysiology studies, examining the biophysical firing properties of medium-sized spiny neurons in a Huntington’s Disease model. He then went on to graduate from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine with a Masters of Science in Anatomy & Neurobiology, specializing in electron microscopy and confocal imaging to study a similar Huntington’s Disease model. In 2021, Dickson returned to his hometown of Seattle, where he joined Seattle Children’s Research Institute as a clinical research associate, working on pediatric Phase I immunotherapy CAR-T cell clinical trials. He is now a first year PhD candidate in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Washington, advised by Dr. Kurt for the Autumn 2023 quarter. Currently, Dickson is working on a multi-modal classification algorithm for glioblastoma patients to predict their survival rate.
Tyson graduated from the University of Washington (Seattle) in 2024 with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He joined the lab as a research intern after taking a dynamics course taught by Dr. Kurt, where he discovered his interest in medical imaging and exploring the biomechanical properties of the brain. Tyson is an NSF GRFP Honorable Mention and a finalist in the 2024 SB3C BS Student Paper Competition. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington under the supervision of Dr. Kurt. His research focuses on utilizing advanced MRI imaging modalities and datasets to gain a holistic understanding of the brain’s biomechanical behavior.
Undergraduate Students
Brad is a 4th-year Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at the University of Washington (UW-Seattle). He has become increasingly passionate about 3D modeling, 3D printing, and design. After taking a kinematics and dynamics course instructed by Dr. Kurt, he gained an interest in brain biomechanics and joined the lab. He's a key contributor to the UW-Seattle AISES Rocketry Club, serving as the CAD lead. He plans to complete his undergrad in the summer of 2025.
Sophie is a 4th-year Bioengineering undergraduate at the University of Washington (Seattle). After taking a Medical Imaging course and hearing a lecture from Dr. Kurt in her Artificial Intelligence in Bioengineering course, she became passionate about the intersection between the two topics and joined the lab. She is active in the UW chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society through Outreach and taking on roles like President and Public Relations Chair. She plans to graduate in the summer of 2025.
Cynthia is a fourth-year undergraduate student double majoring in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington. With the passion for applying deep learning to medical imaging, she joined the lab as a research intern, and is specifically focusing on neural network techniques for brain MRI scan segmentation. She also serves as a lead teaching assistant for the CSE 12X series and contributes to the development of the introductory computer programming courses.
KurtLab Alumni: Research Associates
Farryl Groder, M.S.
fgroder@stevens.edu
Farryl is a class 2018 alumnus who graduated with a Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's and went on to pursue a Master's also in Mechanical Engineering. They were recently hired by Lockheed Martin as a reliability and maintainability engineer.
Gloria Fabris, Ph.D.
gfabris@stevens.edu | @FabGling
After graduating from the University of Bonn (Germany) in Nov. 2016, she joined Kurtlab as a Postdoctoral fellow working on cellular and multiscale brain biomechanics. She is now the associate medical director at Healthcare Consultancy Group.
John Martinez, M.S.
jmarti1@stevens.edu
John is a class 2018 Stevens alumnus who graduated with a Biomedical Engineering Bachelor's. He is currently a business analyst at Weber Shandwick.
Michael Fanton, Ph.D. (co-advised)
mfanton@stanford.edu
Michael is a class of 2020 alumnus of Camarillo Lab, graduating with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.
Thibaut Detroux, Ph.D.
tdetroux@stevens.edu
After his graduation, Thibaut held a FNRS Postdoctoral position between 2016 and 2019, including research stays at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Duke University. In October 2019, he joined Kurtlab as a Postdoctoral fellow working on nonlinear modal analysis of the brain.
Zeynep M. Suar, M.S.
zsuar@stevens.edu
Zeynep is a class 2019 alumnus who graduated with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering.
Daniel Nasti
dnasti@stevens.edu
Danny is a class of 2020 alumnus who graduated with a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering
Efe Ozkaya, Ph.D.
Efe.Ozkaya@mountsinai.org | @efe_ozkaya
Efe graduated from KurtLab at Stevens Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2021. He is now a post-doctoral fellow at BMEII at Mount Sinai Hospital
Vaughn Rice
vrice@stevens.edu
Vaughn is currently an undergraduate student at Stevens Institute of Technology, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical engineering.
Derek Petti
dpetti@stevens.edu
Derek is currently a graduate student at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Devlin Stein
dstein2@stevens.edu
Devlin is currently an undergraduate student at Stevens Institute of Technology studying biomedical engineering.
Andrea Menichetti
andrea.menichetti@kuleuven.be | @AndreaMenichet4
Andrea earned his Ph.D. student at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) in Biomechanical Engineering.
His research focuses on the biomechanics of traumatic brain injury. He joined KurtLab as a visiting research scholar to perform pendulum impact tests on helmeted dummy heads.
Ya-Chen Chuang (Kristina), PhD
ycchuang@uw.edu | @YaChenChuang1
Ya-Chen (Kristina) graduated from National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) with a Bachelor's degree (2013) and a Master's degree (2015) in Chemical Engineering. She specialized in polymer physics during her Master's, and studied the rheological properties of hydrogel and its electrospinnability. During her Ph.D. at Stony Brook University, she focused on studying the synergistic effects of scaffold modulus and surface chemistry for cell mechanics and cytoskeleton organization, and the influences in stem cell differentiation and hard tissue formation. After her graduation in August 2020, she joined Kurtlab as a Postdoctoral fellow working on cellular and multiscale brain biomechanics. She now works for Bio-Techne as an Image Analysis Scientist.
Javid Abderezaei, PhD
(He/Him)
javidab@uw.edu | @j_eldared
Javid received his PhD at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey in 2021. Javid’s research during his PhD was focused on developing new image processing techniques for the analysis of the biomechanics of the brain and cerebrovasculature. After joining Kurtlab as a postdoctoral scholar in 2022, he continued his research by developing novel neural networks for various image processing tasks such as image classification, segmentation, and registration for brain disorders such Chiari Malformation I, and Hydrocephalus. He now works for Genentech as a Computer Vision Researcher.
Aymeric Pionteck, PhD
(He/Him)
apiontec@uw.edu | @APionteck
Aymeric graduated from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) with a Master's degree in Biomechanics, Biomedical and Biomaterials in 2016. During his Ph.D at Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne (France), he focused on coupling 2D images with 3D mechanical models for aorta non-rigid registration and stent-graft deployment simulation during endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms. After his graduation in January 2020, he joined Kurtlab as a Postdoctoral fellow working on brain amplified MRI. He now works at Sim&Cure as an Expert Image Processor.