Cognitive Motor Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory
1919 W Taylor St
Tanvi Bhatt, UIC Department of Physical Therapy
Dr. Bhatt is the director of the Cognitive, Motor and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory and co-director of the Clinical Gait and Motion Analysis laboratory. Her research interest and expertise are in the field of adaptive perturbation training for fall prevention. Her research involves investigating the neuromechanical basis of balance recovery from external perturbations such as slips and trips and subsequently designing intervention paradigms for reducing fall-risk in healthy and pathological populations. Her research interest and focus also lays in examining the effects of alternative cognitive and motor therapies (including virtual reality gaming and dance therapy) for improving impairment, function and participation in community-dwelling people with neurological disorders with an emphasis on stroke survivors.
Our Team
Shuaijie Wang
Research Associate Professor
Dr. Shuaijie Wang is a research associate professor in the Motor Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has rich experience in the area of biomedical engineering such as gait analysis, balance control, fall prevention, fall risk assessment, etc. His research interest involves analyzing the mechanism of falls, developing new training programs for reducing fall risk for older adults, and developing models to assess fall risks using machine learning.
Jessica Pitts
PhD Candidate
Jessica Pitts is a PhD candidate in the Cognitive, Motor, and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory. She earned her B.S. in Kinesiology and Psychology from the College of William and Mary, and her M.S. in Kinesiology from Michigan Technological University. Her research focuses on reactive balance assessment and fall prevention training in older adults, especially Alzheimer’s Disease/Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) populations. For this work, she is currently supported by a predoctoral F31 fellowship award from the National Institute on Aging (1F31AG086016-01).
Rudri Purohit
Research Assistant and PhD Candidate
Rudri Purohit is a PhD candidate in the Cognitive, Motor, and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory. She earned her M.S. in Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her B.S. in Physical Therapy and has clinical experience in neurorehabilitation physical therapist in the United States. Her current work focuses on testing the feasibility of smartphone-based exercise training combined with functional electrical stimulation to improve physical and cognitive function, and quality of life in underserved aging adults with high stroke-related motor impairment. For this project, she has received doctoral pilot funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) funded Midwest Roybal Center for Health Promotion and Translation. She is now pursuing a doctoral concentration in Neuroscience along with primary doctoral concentration in Rehabilitation Sciences.
Swaranka Deshmukh
PhD Candidate
Swaranka Deshmukh is a PhD candidate in the Cognitive, Motor, and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory and a Teaching assistant in the Department of biological sciences. She has earned her undergraduate degree in Physical Therapy from India and a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Sciences from UIC in the summer of 2021. After completing her master’s, she practiced as a physical therapy assistant in New York for two years. She started her PhD program in Rehabilitation Sciences in Fall 2023. Her research focuses on areas such as balance, cognition, and motor training across various clinical populations mainly neurological diseases.
Upasana Sahu
PhD Candidate
Upasana Sahu is a PhD candidate in the Cognitive, Motor, and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory. She completed her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in physical therapy from India. She has clinical experience in India in treating the Neurological population with NDT (C/NeuroDevelopmentalTreatment) and Aquatic therapy. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD with research focused on effect of muscle fatigue on reactive balance among young and aging adults, and telehealth training in aging adults and those with frailty.
Upasana Sahu | usahu2@uic.edu
Mazi (Mahaziver) Master
Research Coordinator
Mazi (Mahaziver) Master is a Research Coordinator at the Cognitive, Motor, Balance and Rehabilitation Laboratory with a foundation and clinical experience in musculoskeletal sciences and a passion for improving patient outcomes. Her experience as a licensed physical therapist, coupled with her certification in the McKenzie Method, equips her with the skills to effectively contribute to the lab’s research initiatives. She is currently working towards preparing for the Geriatrics Certified Specialist exam, with a goal of improving the quality of life for older adults by promoting functional independence.
Mazi (Mahaziver) Master | mmaster@uic.edu
Radhika Jaiman
Research Coordinator
Radhika Jaiman is a Research Coordinator working at the Cognitive, Motor, Balance and Rehabilitation Laboratory. She completed her Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree from India. With a background in clinical practice, she excels at interacting with new people and is passionate about advancing the scientific field and improving patient-centered outcomes among clinical populations. She coordinates research studies in the Physical Therapy Department, where she assists with coordinating between lab research projects.
Radhika Jaiman | rjaiman@uic.edu
Alumni
Savitha Subramaniam
Lakshmi Kannan
Manjeshwar Sahana Srinivas Kamath
Gonzalo Varas
Shamali Dusane
Ernest K Ofori
Rachana Gangwani
Falguni Kulkarni
Edwina Gautam Wilson
Sparsh Jain
Maharshi Patel