Faculty Profile

Harshal Mahajan serves as the Assistant Director of Research for the McKechnie Family Living in Interactive Future Environments (LIFE) home research center where he manages research and development activities with smart home and robotic technologies. He isa principal investigator of a NIDILRR funded Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects grant for evaluating feasibility and efficacy of a fear of falling intervention for individuals with Multiple Sclerosis. His role further extends to support the MSin Health Technology program.

Dr. Mahajan is accepting PhD students and post docs to join his research team. Interested candidates may email him their CVs.

His research interests span understanding barriers and facilitators that influence health and function in older adults and individuals with disabilitiesand developing and evaluating smart intervention strategies (including assistive technologies). Other interests include development and psychometric evaluation of clinical assessment tools and for evaluating universal design aspects of workplaces.

His educational background is in biomedical and rehabilitation engineering. He completed his graduate training in clinical research at the wheelchair center for excellence at the Veteran Affairs, Pittsburgh. His doctoral and post-doctoral research comprisedof iterative development of two assistive technology systems and their clinical assessments with older adults, people with spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and those with neurological disabilities because of cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.