Max K. Shepherd
| Max K. Shepherd | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 🎓 Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BS) Northwestern University (MS, PhD) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Robotic prosthetics, exoskeletons, VSPA Foot |
| 🌐 Website | shepherdlab |
Max K. Shepherd is an American roboticist and biomedical engineer who is an assistant professor at Northeastern University with a joint appointment in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences.[1] His research focuses on the individualized design and control of robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons for people with mobility impairments, spanning gait biomechanics, machine learning, mechatronic design, and human motor control and perception.[2]
Education
Shepherd received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[2] He earned his Master of Science (2017) and Doctor of Philosophy (2019) in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, where he conducted his doctoral research at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.[1]
Career
Prior to his academic appointment, Shepherd worked at X Development (formerly Google X), Alphabet Inc.'s research and development lab, and was a visiting scholar at Össur, an Icelandic prosthetics manufacturer.[1] He completed postdoctoral research at the Georgia Institute of Technology before joining Northeastern University in January 2022.[1]
At Northeastern, Shepherd directs the Shepherd Lab, which focuses on robotics, rehabilitation, and locomotion. The lab includes doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and master's students working across mechanical engineering, bioengineering, and robotics.[3]
Research
Variable-Stiffness Prosthetic Ankle (VSPA) Foot
Shepherd developed the VSPA Foot, a quasi-passive ankle-foot prosthesis featuring continuously variable stiffness. Unlike conventional fixed-stiffness prosthetic feet, the VSPA Foot uses a cam-based transmission and fiberglass leaf spring to create a customizable torque-angle relationship, with a small motor that can modulate overall stiffness between mobility tasks.[4] Shepherd's group has continued this line of work with the Variable-Stiffness Ankle (VSA), funded by a Spark Fund Award from Northeastern's Center for Research Innovation.[5]
Exoskeleton control and rehabilitation
Shepherd's lab works on powered knee and ankle exoskeletons for gait rehabilitation. His research on exoskeleton balance control, conducted in collaboration with Georgia Tech, was featured on the cover of Science Robotics, demonstrating that exoskeletons must react faster than physiological responses to improve standing balance.[6] In collaboration with Aaron Young at Georgia Tech, Shepherd received an $800,000 National Science Foundation grant for research on task-agnostic and device-agnostic ankle exoskeleton control.[1]
Shepherd co-authored a 2024 paper published in Nature introducing a task-agnostic exoskeleton controller based on deep learning that estimates biological joint moments in real time, enabling assistance across 28 different activities without manual tuning.[7]
Pediatric exoskeleton interventions
Shepherd has investigated the use of powered knee exoskeletons for pediatric gait rehabilitation. In collaboration with Georgia Tech and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, his work has addressed genu recurvatum (knee hyperextension) in children and adolescents with neurological deficits, demonstrating that an impedance-controlled knee exoskeleton reduced hyperextension and improved swing-phase range of motion.[8] A subsequent study demonstrated that the same exoskeleton platform could mitigate crouch gait — the opposite pathology, characterized by excessive knee flexion — in neurologically impaired children.[9]
Selected publications
The following are selected publications:[10]
- Shepherd, Max K.; Rouse, Elliott J. (2017). "The VSPA Foot: A Quasi-Passive Ankle-Foot Prosthesis with Continuously Variable Stiffness". IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 25 (12): 2375–2386. doi:10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2750113. PMID 28885156.
- Shepherd, Max K.; Rouse, Elliott J. (2017). "Design and Validation of a Torque-Controllable Knee Exoskeleton for Sit-to-Stand Assistance". IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. 22 (4): 1695–1704. doi:10.1109/TMECH.2017.2704521.
- Shepherd, Max K.; Azocar, Alejandro F.; Major, Matthew J.; Rouse, Elliott J. (2018). "Amputee Perception of Prosthetic Ankle Stiffness During Locomotion". Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.
Honors and awards
- Northwestern Presidential Fellowship[2]
- Highest Distinction, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill[2]
- Finalist, Wearacon Innovation Competition (2017)[2]
- Fall 2024 Spark Fund Awardee, Northeastern Center for Research Innovation (announced January 2025)[11]
- NSF Grant: "Towards Task-Agnostic and Device-Agnostic Ankle Exoskeleton Control" ($800,000, with A. Young)[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Max Shepherd". Northeastern University College of Engineering. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Max Shepherd". Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
- ↑ "People". Shepherd Lab. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
- ↑ Shepherd, Max K.; Rouse, Elliott J. (2017). "The VSPA Foot: A Quasi-Passive Ankle-Foot Prosthesis with Continuously Variable Stiffness". IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 25 (12): 2375–2386. doi:10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2750113. PMID 28885156.
- ↑ "A Smarter Step: Spark Fund Awards Dr. Shepherd's Variable-Stiffness Prosthetic Ankle". Center for Research Innovation, Northeastern University. 2025-02-11. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
- ↑ Beck, Owen; Shepherd, Max; Rastogi, Rish; Martino, Giovanni; Ting, Lena; Sawicki, Gregory (2023). "Exoskeletons Need to React Faster than Physiological Responses to Improve Standing Balance". Science Robotics. doi:10.1126/scirobotics.adf1080.
- ↑ Molinaro, Dean D.; Scherpereel, Keaton L.; Schonhaut, Ethan B.; Evangelopoulos, Georgios; Shepherd, Max K.; Young, Aaron J. (2024). "Task-agnostic exoskeleton control via biological joint moment estimation". Nature. 635 (8038): 337–344. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7. PMID 39537888 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Lee, Dawit; Shepherd, Max K.; Mulrine, Sierra C.; Schneider, Julianne D.; Moore, Kelly F.; Eggebrecht, Erin M.; Rogozinski, Benjamin M.; Herrin, Kinsey R.; Young, Aaron J. (2023). "Reducing Knee Hyperextension With an Exoskeleton in Children and Adolescents With Genu Recurvatum: A Feasibility Study". IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. 70 (12): 3312–3320. doi:10.1109/TBME.2023.3282165. PMID 37262114 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Lee, Dawit; Mulrine, Sierra C.; Shepherd, Max K.; Westberry, David E.; Rogozinski, Benjamin M.; Herrin, Kinsey R.; Young, Aaron J. (2024). "Mitigating Crouch Gait With an Autonomous Pediatric Knee Exoskeleton in the Neurologically Impaired". ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. 146 (12): 121005. doi:10.1115/1.4066370. PMID 39196589 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ "Max Shepherd – Google Scholar". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
- ↑ "Announcing the Fall 2024 Spark Fund Awardees". Center for Research Innovation, Northeastern University. 2025-01-28. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
External links
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