Our Team

Bolu Ajiboye, PhD

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering | Case Western Reserve University
Investigator | Cleveland FES Center

Dr. Ajiboye is the Elmer Lincoln Lindseth Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, and Principal Investigator at the Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service “Center for Functional Electrical Stimulation”.

Dr. Ajiboye directs the Laboratory for Intelligent Machine-Brain Systems (LIMBS). LIMBS focuses on the development of brain-machine interface (BMI) technologies for restoring sensorimotor function to individuals with chronic paralysis due to severely debilitating injuries, such as spinal cord injury. Dr. Ajiboye has received over $10 million in federal funding (NIH, VA, DoD) as principal or co-investigator.

Dr. Ajiboye received his dual BS degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, as well as a minor in Computer Science, from Duke University. He then received his Masters and Doctoral degrees from Northwestern University.

Emily Graczyk, PhD

Assistant Professor, Dept of Biomedical Engineering | Case Western Reserve University
Investigator, Functional Electrical Stimulation Center | Cleveland VA Medical Center

Dr. Graczyk is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and a Biomedical Engineer at the Cleveland VA Medical Center. She leads the sensory aspects of the ReHAB program, with the goal of providing intuitive touch feedback to ReHAB participants during functional activity. Dr. Graczyk and the team are investigating the sensations created by both intracortical microstimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation in study participants with spinal cord injury.

Dr. Graczyk’s research examines the coding and processing of somatosensory information and the perceptual and psychological experience of artificial sensation created by neurotechnology. She uses cross-disciplinary approaches to study sensation, including neural stimulation, computational modeling, psychometrics, behavioral assessments, and qualitative analyses. Dr. Graczyk has been awarded funding by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense for her lab’s work.

Jennifer Sweet, MD

Neurosurgeon, Division of Functional & Sterotactic Neurosurgery | UH Cleveland Medical Center
Associate Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery | Case Western Reserve University
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry | Case Western Reserve University
Investigator | Cleveland FES Center

“As an academic neurosurgeon in the field of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, I am dedicated to a career as a physician-scientist.”

Jennifer Sweet, MD, is a neurosurgeon in the Division of Functional & Stereotactic Neurosurgery at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. She is also the Sheila and Sandy Fox Master Clinician in Neurosurgery and an Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Sweet’s interests include neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation (DBS), movement disorders, cognitive disorders, psychiatric and mood disorders, traumatic brain injury, neuropathic pain, cancer pain, drug delivery, peripheral nerve surgery, epilepsy surgery and general neurosurgery.

Robert Kirsch, PhD

Allen H. and Constance T. Ford Professor & Chair, Biomedical Engineering | Case Western Reserve University
Executive Director | Cleveland FES Center

Dr. Robert F. Kirsch, Ph.D. is the Allen H. and Constance T. Ford Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and the Executive Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service “Center for Functional Electrical Stimulation”.

Dr. Kirsch is the Principal Investigator of the Case-Coulter Translational Research partnership, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the Chair of the national BME Council of Chairs (2017), the Director of a NIBIB T32 training grant, and a member of advisory boards for a number of biomedical engineering departments, research centers, and training grants across the US and internationally.

Dr. Kirsch research focuses on the restoration of arm movements to individuals with complete paralysis of arm muscles due to spinal cord injury or other neurological disorders using functional electrical stimulation (FES), as well as high performance user command interfaces such as brain computer interfaces and advanced prosthetic user interfaces.

Dr. Kirsch received a BS in electrical engineering (University of Cincinnati) and the MS and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering (Northwestern University), and completed post-doctoral research (McGill University).

Investigators and Staff

William Memberg, MS

Senior Biomedical Engineer | Case Western Reserve University
Biomedical Engineer | Cleveland FES Center

Aaron Ketting-Olivier, M.S.

Biomedical Engineer | Cleveland FES Center

Eric Herring, MD

Neurosurgery Resident | UH Cleveland Medical Center

Dustin Tyler, PhD

Kent H. Smith II Professor of Biomedical Engineering | Case Western Reserve University
Associate Director of Engineering & Quality, Advanced Platform Technology Center | Cleveland VA Medical Center
Investigator | Cleveland FES Center

Students

Emily Conlan

Brianna Hutchison

John Krall

Preethi Bhat

Ben Alexander

Meron Abate

Crispin Foli

Bronwyn Spilker

Alumni – Investigators and Staff

Dr. Jonathan Miller, MD

Former Director, Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery Center| UH Cleveland Medical Center
Former Director of Epilepsy Surgery | UH Cleveland Medical Center
Former Investigator | Cleveland FES Center