Page 13 - ME Newsletter Fall

WELCOME TO ME Assistant Professor
RACHEL GEHLHAR HUMANN
1. Where are you from originally, and where have you lived other than Minnesota?
I grew up in Hager City, WI, right next to Red
Wing, MN. I have lived in Maryland, Georgia, and
California.
2. When did you join the UMN ME faculty?
Spring 2024
3. What University-level committees do you serve on, and what do they do?
I am an undergraduate advisor. I meet with undergrads to discuss their course plans and academic and career goals.
4. What do you like most about teaching?
I enjoy thinking about ways to explain concepts more clearly and present course material in a way students can connect with.
5. What are your favorite places in the Twin Cities?
I really enjoy walking, running, and biking on the river trail by UMN. I look forward to exploring more trails, parks, and lakes around the Twin Cities.
6. What are your best tips for surviving Minnesota winters?
Walk like a penguin! Cook and eat warm food.
7. What is your proudest moment as an engineer?
I was very excited in grad school when I got my new prosthesis control method for the robotic prosthetic leg I was working on. It felt really cool to push
down on the prosthesis and feel it “push back”, instead of having the knee slowly bend down like usual. It was neat to tangibly feel the result I expected from the math I did. It was especially exciting to see the method yielded
movement lined up very closely to our desired movement. I was surprised how much better the control method worked, it was cool to see and feel the theory
8. What is your engineer origin story? When/how did you know you wanted to be an engineer?
My dad is a mechanical engineer and always encouraged my sisters and I to pursue engineering. However, it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I started to understand what engineers do and realized it combined a
lot of my interests. I enjoyed math, science, art, and thinking in 3D, and I saw engineering as a way to pursue creative ideas while also using analytical methods.
9. What question do you most want to answer during your career?
that generalize across users. I’m interested in what humans fundamentally need from an assistive device to walk in a healthy manner and how we can systematically develop prosthesis controllers to meet these needs.
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