Marcia O’Malley, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Mechanical Engineering (MECH) and director of the Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab at Rice University, has been named a 2018-19 ELATE Fellow as part of Drexel University’s program to advance senior women faculty in engineering and technology.
O’Malley is one of 18 women from 16 universities in the U.S. and Canada to participate in ELATE (Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering). The program focuses on “increasing personal and professional leadership effectiveness [and] leading and managing change initiatives within institutions.”
Fellows participate in the first of three week-long, in-residence sessions in August, when they meet at the Chubb Conference Center in Lafayette Hill, Pa. The fellowship concludes in March 2019 with a symposium dedicated to “institutional change projects.”
O’Malley earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in MECH from Vanderbilt University in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and joined the Rice faculty in 2001. She holds complementary appointments in electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Rice. She is special adviser to the provost on health-related research and educational initiatives, and serves as an adjunct associate professor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
O’Malley is director of rehabilitation engineering at TIRR-Memorial Hermann Hospital, and co-founder of Houston Medical Robotics, Inc. Her research focuses on issues generated by humans physically interacting with robotic systems, with emphasis on applications in motor skill training and upper limb rehabilitation. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Jane Grande-Allen, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and department chair, has been a 2017-18 ELATE Fellow.
