Dr. Deema Totah is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Iowa, and director of the Robotics and Assistive Devices Laboratory (RAD Lab). Dr. Totah’s research interests lie in improving the efficacy of assistive devices for customized patient care through experimental, musculoskeletal biomechanics research. She is passionate about building robotic and mechatronic systems with integrated wearable sensing to test assistive device properties, study human movement and behavior, and understand how humans and devices interact with each other.  Prior to joining UI in 2021, Dr. Totah completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan’s School of Kinesiology. Dr. Totah received her Ph.D. in 2020 and M.S.E. in 2014, both in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Michigan. She received a B.S. from the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT in 2012. She was born and raised in Ramallah, Palestine. She is also the voice of five characters on a children’s STEM education app.