Eugenio (Henny) Frias-Miranda

Eugenio (Henny) Frias-Miranda

Mechanical Engineering PhD Candidate

Purdue University

Eugenio (“Henny”) is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He works in Laura Blumenschein’s Robust and Adaptive Design Lab. He was supported by the William E. and Florence E. Perry Teaching Fellowship, through which he lectured a Dynamics section of 109 students. He has received the Dr. Anil K. Bajaj Outstanding Service Scholarship for his service to Purdue’s mechanical engineering graduate student community. His broader work centers on integrating soft robots into everyday life by leveraging compliant human–robot interaction, combining human perception and decision-making with soft robotic models to enable new capabilities and emergent behaviors. At present, he studies how wearable kinesthetic force feedback devices influence human motor adaptation, with an emphasis on how force magnitude and feedback design shape learning in full-body tasks. Previously, he contributed to the development of a self-sensing, obstacle-interacting vine robot and folded pneumatic artificial muscles. In his free time, Eugenio enjoys playing tennis, hiking, and learning about technology.