Faculty Directory | Biomechanics Lab | NC State ISE
Faculty and Student Directory

Xu Xu
Assistant Professor
(919) 512-7205
4351 Fitts-Woolard Hall
xxu@ncsu.edu
https://www.ise.ncsu.edu/people/xxu/
Education
Ph.D. North Carolina State University, 2008
M.S. North Carolina State University, 2006
B.S. Tsinghua University, 2004
Prior to joining the NC State faculty, Xu Xu started his career as a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Public Health at Harvard University. From there he became a research scientist at Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety where he received best paper and outstanding scientific contribution awards. His research interests are generally in the areas of biomechanical modeling, optimization, simulation and data mining with respect to human daily activities to promote workplace and at-home injury prevention and driving safety. Xu has published more than forty journal articles on the aforementioned research topics.

Karen Chen
Assistant Professor
(919) 515-6403
4349 Fitts-Woolard Hall
kbchen2@ncsu.edu
https://www.ise.ncsu.edu/people/kbchen2/
Education
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2015
MS University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010
BS University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2009
Karen Chen’s research studies human performances and uses human factors and ergonomics frameworks as the foundation. She also implements technologies such as virtual reality to explore potentials in improving the health and safety of various populations. She has investigated the use of virtual reality to understand its utility for ranges of motion rehabilitation of chronic pain patients. Besides research, she also offers courses in Human-Computer Interface, Human Factors in Systems Design, Musculoskeletal Health, and Special Topics in Technology and Healthcare Applications.

Ziyang Xie
Ph.D. Student
zxie8@ncsu.edu
Education
BS, Automotive Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University 2017
MS, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NCSU
Ziyang Xie is a Ph.D. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State. His previous training is in mechanical engineering and his current research interests are wearable sensing and human activity recognition.

Li Li
Ph.D. Student
lli40@ncsu.edu
Education
BS, Zhejiang University, 2017
Li Li ‘s primary research interests are in the applications of deep neural network-based computer vision on human factors and ergonomics. His current work includes driving behavior identification and automated workplace risk monitoring.

Matt Hutmacher
Master’s Student
cmhutmac@ncsu.edu
Education
BS, North Carolina State University, 2018
Li Li ‘s primary research interests are in the applications of deep neural network-based computer vision on human factors and ergonomics. His current work includes driving behavior identification and automated workplace risk monitoring.

Bobby Hazel
Master’s Student
ryhazel@ncsu.edu
Education
BS, Biomedical Engineering, UNC/NCSU 2017
Bobby Hazel is a Master’s student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State. His previous training is in Biomedical Engineering and his current research interests are in workplace safety during human-robot collaboration.

Melissa White
Alumnus
mmwhite8@ncsu.edu
Education
Ph.D. North Carolina State University, 2018
M.S. University of Notre Dame, 2013
B.S. University of Miami, 2012
Melissa White‘s research focused on the optimization of equipment arrangement for police officer’s duty belt, with safety constraints on biomechanical measures.

Rebecca Widmayer
Alumnus
rellis6@ncsu.edu
Education
MS NC State University, 2019
BS University of Delaware, 2014
Rebecca Widmayer’s research focused on biomechanical responses in virtual-reality environment.