About Us
The Mobility Assist was developed by Prof. Anurag Purwar and his students in his Computer-Aided Design Innovation lab housed in the department
of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University (SUNY).
Dr. Purwar received his Ph.D. from State University of New York at Stony Brook and his B. Tech from IIT Kanpur, both in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are in machine design area with a focus on kinematic design of robots and mechanisms, CAD/CAM, and application of Computational Geometry, Virtual Reality (VR), Computer Graphics and Visualization in Design Engineering.
Dr. Purwar's research work has been published in international journals and conferences and he is the recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching by Stony Brook University. His work on the interactive dimensional synthesis of planar 6R mechanisms won him a best paper award at the 2009 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC). He has been twice elected as a member of the ASME Mechanisms and Robotics committee and served as the Program Chair for the 38th ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference. He was the conference chair for the 2015 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference and has also served as symposium and session chairs for many ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences. He is serving as a General Conference Chair for the 2016 ASME IDETC.
Dr. Purwar is also the department's representative to the NY state-funded Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program. As the SPIR representative, he identifies and coordinates projects between the department and Long Island based industries. SPIR projects include joint proposals for federal funding, manufacturing and quality assurance improvements, research and development, and testing and evaluation.
He recently won a SUNY Research Foundation Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) award, which enabled him to develop a multifunctional Sit-to-Stand-Walker assistive device for people afflicted with neuromuscular degenrative diseases or disability. The technology and the patent behind the device has been licensed to Biodex Medical Systems for bringing the device to institutional market. See Governor Cuomo's announcement at http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/10012013-biodex-medical-systems.
In 2014, Dr. Purwar gave an invited TEDx talk on Machine Design Innovation through Technology and Education (available athttp://youtu.be/B4VfrtHNJtY?t=44s), which focused on enabling democratization of design capabilities, much needed for invention and innovation of machines by uniting the teaching of scientific and engineering principles with the new tools of technology.