William Provancher wins NSF Career Award

William Provancher, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Career award to advance haptics research by exploring and comparing approaches to providing haptic guidance for path following and fine motor tasks.

The goal of this research improve the realism of simulations and virtual environments of all kinds. Project outcomes will be applicable across a broad cross-section of domains including neuro- and tele-surgery, hand rehabilitation, guidance systems for the blind, and consumer applications like automotive GPS navigation systems.

The Career award is one of the National Science Foundation's highest honors for young faculty members, and it recognizes and supports the early career activities of those teachers and scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the future.