Douglas Weber
Akhtar and Bhutta Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Neuroscience Institute
Douglas Weber is broadly interested in understanding the role of sensory feedback in supporting and regulating a wide range of perceptual, motor, cognitive, and autonomic functions. His research combines fundamental neuroscience and engineering research to understand physiological mechanisms underlying sensory perception, feedback control of movement, and neuroplasticity in sensorimotor systems. Knowledge gained from these studies is being applied to invent new technologies and therapies for enhancing sensory and motor functions after stroke, spinal cord injury, or limb loss. These principles are also being applied to develop wearable devices for enhancing sensory, motor, and cognitive functions in healthy humans. He is committed to transitioning outputs of his academic research into practical technologies that support real-world applications, and he works actively with industrial partners to bridge the gap from bench to market.
A founding member of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, Weber created and managed a portfolio of neurotechnology research programs to support the White House BRAIN initiative, launched by President Obama in 2013. He created DARPA’s HAPTIX, ElectRx, and TNT programs, which are developing implantable, injectable, and wearable neurotechnologies that restore natural motor and sensory functions for amputees, enable novel and drug-free therapies for treating inflammatory disease and mental health disorders, and promote plasticity in the brain to enhance learning of complex cognitive skills.
Weber completed post-doctoral training in the Centre for Neuroscience at the University of Alberta. He holds eight issued United States patents and has published extensively on a wide range of topics spanning sensorimotor neurophysiology, biomechanics, neural engineering, and physical medicine. He has mentored over 100 undergraduate, graduate and medical students and several post-doctoral fellows.
Improving the Interface Between Humans and Machines
Education
2001 Ph.D., Bioengineering, Arizona State University
2000 MS, Bioengineering, Arizona State University
1994 BS, Biomedical Engineering, Milwaukee School of Engineering
Media mentions
The New York Times
Weber discusses new wristband that controls computers
MechE’s Douglas Weber spoke with The New York Times about Meta’s new wristband that can control computers with hand movements.
CMU Engineering
Improved muscle mapping could aid neurological treatment
Carnegie Mellon researchers are using high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) with spatial filters and ultrasound to reduce crosstalk and enhance muscle activity localization. This approach aims to achieve precise mapping of muscle activity, particularly in complex structures like the forearm.
Pitt CTSI
Grover and Weber awarded research funding to study female pain
ECE’s Pulkit Grover and MechE’s Doug Weber won $50,000 to research female pain
CMU Engineering
Carnegie Mellon lands ARPA-H award for implantable bioelectric medicine project
A CMU-led project team secured an award of up to $42M from ARPA-H to accelerate the development of implantable bioelectronic devices that deliver patient-specific therapy and monitor disease status.