An innovative collaboration between engineering and nursing at UMass Amherst allows a PhD candidate to draw upon the expertise of nurses to improve robotic medical devices. 

Gina Georgadarellis ’16, ’21 MS was initially drawn to UMass Amherst because of the wealth of opportunities it offered. She was leaning towards engineering but also had an interest in journalism, and she knew that UMass offered excellent programs in both. 

“It was appealing to have so many options and opportunities at UMass, so just in case I changed my mind, I had equally good options in a different discipline,” she says. 

Georgadarellis ultimately decided to study engineering and has since earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, both at UMass. She is currently a PhD candidate in the UMass Amherst Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, where she works in the Mechatronics and Robotics Research Lab (MRRL). MRRL focuses on human-centered mechatronic design in developing collaborative and rehabilitative technologies. 

“Mechatronics integrates different engineering disciplines—mechanical, electrical, and computer systems,” Georgadarellis explains. “For our lab, it’s mainly looking at how to improve the human aspect of these designs. My advisor, Frank Sup, did a lot of work on lower limb prosthetics and rehabilitation.” 

Georgadarellis’s work is centered on the Robotic Technology in Nursing project, which is supported by the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, a collaborative center between the College of Engineering and the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing. This collaboration allows researchers like Georgadarellis to engage with the nurses who actually use the robotic devices, gaining invaluable feedback to enhance their designs. Georgadarellis’s project focuses on the usability and perception of robotic technology within the clinical setting.  

“Nurses are one of the biggest groups in the health care system and are directly using the medical devices the engineers design,” Georgadarellis says. “They have great insight into what works—and what doesn’t work—with the devices.” 

Georgadarellis says that interacting with the nurses and patients who utilize the robotic devices allows engineers to experience firsthand how their device is used in real-world settings, which can help inform further product refinement. 

“Engineers often don’t understand the workflow of a hospital and the impact the devices have on the patients,” says Georgadarellis. “It’s really important to get into real hospitals and talk to real nurses, to get a good understanding of what nurses actually do and what hospitals are like.” 

She says the work she’s doing on this project is unlike prior experiences. 

“My previous work was interdisciplinary, but it was still basic science,” she explains. “With this nursing research, it’s more translational, where we’re now implementing these things to improve human life.” 

Georgadarellis says that the behind-the-scenes work it takes to get into the hospitals—the red tape, exhaustive paperwork, lengthy email exchanges just to connect with the right person—is all worth it. 

“We can now do all these really cool projects, with real nurses giving us design input and design ideas, which we can take back to the lab, then return and collaboratively and iteratively work on the design process,” she enthuses.  

Philanthropic Support Creates Opportunities 

Throughout her UMass education, Georgadarellis has received scholarship support from generous donors. She says this has been tremendously helpful not just to her but to her family as well. 

“I am very fortunate to have had the support of my family throughout my whole college career, but with three other siblings, it was very tough. We were all aware of the financial impact,” Georgadarellis says. “When I received my scholarship freshman year, it brought a huge sense of relief. I knew I did not have to worry about taking money away from my younger siblings.” 

Georgadarellis was self-funded for the first four years of her master’s program before receiving a fellowship. When she started thinking about pursuing her PhD, she was faced with a lack of funding—and a tough decision. 

“At the time, my advisor didn’t have any funding for me. An unfunded PhD wasn’t financially feasible for me, so I had to stop doing my research for a while,” she says. 

Things changed when Georgadarellis decided to join MRRL. There, thanks to the support of visionary donors, she found ample funding that allows her to conduct research full time, in an area she is passionate about. 

“It’s an interdisciplinary field that I love. Working in robotics and nursing is a great opportunity to use my skills to help people and not just progress science on a basic level,” she says. 

Georgadarellis is exceptionally grateful for the generous donors who have supported her at all levels of her education, noting that philanthropy will always remain a pressing need. 

“I did have my family to support me. There are a lot of other students who don’t have family support,” she says. “I can only imagine how helpful these scholarships are for them.” 

Support the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation.