Jessica C. Selinger
Papers
6
Total Citations
648
H-Index
5
About
Jessica C. Selinger is a leading researcher in human locomotion, motor control, and assistive robotics, whose work illuminates how the nervous system optimizes movement and how that knowledge can be applied to enhance human mobility. Her most influential contribution is the discovery that humans continuously optimize energetic cost during walking (411 citations), fundamentally changing our understanding of gait adaptation. Selinger pioneered the "Body-In-The-Loop" optimization framework (144 citations), which uses real-time physiological measures to automatically tune assistive devices like prostheses and exoskeletons—a breakthrough for personalized rehabilitation and performance enhancement. She has also combined human experiments with computational reinforcement learning models to reveal how people initiate and converge on optimal gaits, providing mechanistic insights into motor learning. Her work on exotendons demonstrated that connecting the legs with a spring improves running economy through a more complex mechanism than previously thought. Selinger’s research bridges biomechanics, neuroscience, and engineering, with direct applications in wearable robotics and clinical gait rehabilitation. Her predictive simulation models for exoskeleton control further exemplify her impact, offering tools to expedite device design and improve human-robot collaboration.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Humans Can Continuously Optimize Energetic Cost during Walking411 citations · 2015
- 2
- 3How people initiate energy optimization and converge on their optimal gaits57 citations · 2019
- 4
- 5Connecting the legs with a spring improves human running economy12 citations · 2018
- 6