Golecki Research Group
We work at the interface of humans and materials in medical devices and educational tools. Our interests include:
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Engineering education
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Robotics workforce development
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Application of biomaterials in robotic systems
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Medical device design
Golecki Group News
2026
10/2026 - Golecki and colleagues contributed two chapters on design education in biomedical engineering to a new book titled Perspectives on Biomedical Engineering Education. Thanks to editors, Socrates Dokos, Chun Chuen Billy Chan, and Lauren Kark for the opportunity to collaborate with leaders in the field on this effort! Check out the book here: DOI: 10.1201/9781003520313.
Chapter 7: Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Capstone Design Courses
by Jennifer Amos, Joe Bradley, and Holly Golecki.
Chapter 15: A Design Continuum That Mimics Workplace Organizational Structure
by Jennifer Amos, Joe Bradley, and Holly Golecki.
10/2026 - Golecki served as a member of the planning committee for the NSF Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) Grantees Conference hosted by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). Golecki attended the conference as an organizer and a grantee of the NSF CAREER award from EEC.
9/2026 - We made the cover! An image based on our bioFREEs paper made the cover of Royal Society of Chemistry Applied Polymers. Check out our article titled, "Engineering protein-based fiber-reinforced pneumatic actuators" RSC Appl. Polym. 2026.
9/2026 - Present (Evelyn and Natalie) and Alumni (Eric) Golecki Group members present at the Illinois-Sandia Student Research Symposium. Awesome to see three posters on our collaborative work with Bryan Kaehr (Sandia) presented at the event!
9/2026 - Natalie Taylor, Golecki Group PhD student, hosted the first of a new workshop series focused on laboratory accessibility. Together with the Collaborations in the Advancement of Research on Disability (CARD) working group, the first workshop focused on accessibility modifications and opportunities in the Bioengineering Senior Design Lab. The workshop series is sponsored by the Grainger College of Engineering IDEA Institute GIANT Grant Program. Great conversation!
8/2026 - Congratulations to summer REU student, Juan Popoca, on his poster presentation of his work! Juan made great contributions to our SEAT project as we think about usability and human-centered design in next generation cushion technologies. Great job Juan and his mentor, Diane! We are excited to welcome Juan to UIUC BIOE and the Golecki Group this fall!
6/2026 -Collaborator, Caroline Cvetkovic, presented a talk at ASEE on behalf of the BIOEref Pages team. You can check out our efforts to create open education resources (OERs) for bioengineering undergraduate education here: https://bioe.refpages.org/
4/2026 - Evelyn Ochoa Arias presented two papers from the SEAT team at the Design of Medical Devices conference hosted by the University of Minnesota. Check out our papers:
"A Rapid Prototyping Tool for Air-Bladder Wheelchair Cushions using Image-Driven Modeling". Arias, EAO et al. Proceedings of the 2026 Design of Medical Devices Conference. 2026 Design of Medical Devices Conference. Minneapolis, MN, USA. April 20–22, 2026. V001T02A009. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DMD2026-1085
"A Clinical Perspective on Wheelchair Seat Cushion Attributes to Inform Design". Taylor, NM et al. Proceedings of the 2026 Design of Medical Devices Conference. 2026 Design of Medical Devices Conference. Minneapolis, MN, USA. April 20–22, 2026. V001T04A007. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DMD2026-1057
04/2026 - Golecki Group was out at the HCES! Golecki served on a panel focused on teaching HCED. Diane, Natalie and Evelyn all presented posters related to our pressure injury prevention work at the Human Centered Engineering Design Symposium hosted by Siebel Center for Design at UIUC!
03/2026 - Congratulations to summer research student, Jareec' Turner, for winning a travel award to present his summer research, "CNC-based Cushion Manufacturing and Software Control for Pressure Injury Prevention" at the Emerging Researchers National Conference in Atlanta, GA! This project is supported by JumpARCHES and Illinois SCI-STEMA research program.
02/2026 - Natalie and Evelyn present SEAT-C (JumpARCHES) posters "Understanding Clinical Decision Making and Perspectives on Wheelchair Seating" at the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory Student Conference.
01/2026 - Natalie presents SEAT-C project and Accessibility in Labs workshops at the Accessibility in STEM Conference at NC State University.
2025
11/2025 - New Paper: "Using Podcasts to Motivate Bioengineering Capstone Students Toward Learning and Career Exploration", in Biomedical Engineering Education. Read it here!
10/2025 - Holly and Golecki Group grad students out celebrating Sandra's successful Prelim Exam and the group's new CAREER award at Lazy Daisy in Urbana!
10/2025 - Golecki celebrated promotion to Associate Teaching Professor by dedicating a bookplate at the University Library. Check out the selections from this year here.
09/2025 - New Grant! Golecki receives the NSF CAREER award for her project titled, "CAREER: Supporting Professional Formation of Robotics Engineers through a Human-Centered Design Approach" NSF 2541364
09/2025 - Paper highlight! Our editorial in JEE was featured in the UIUC CARD Newsletter this month! Check it out here.
08/2025 - New paper: "Fostering Future Innovators: A Pedagogical Approach to Introduce Engineering Design and Robotics in Middle School Science Education", in Science Scope https://doi.org/10.1080/08872376.2025.2537623
08/2025 - Evelyn Ochoa Arias presents on behalf of the Jump ARCHES Cushion project team at American Society of Biomechanics conference in Pittsburgh, PA.
07/2025 - New Editorial: "Beyond buildings: Designing and maintaining classroom laboratory spaces for physical accessibility" in Journal of Engineering Education, https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.70009
04/2025 - Golecki Group and BIOE498 students present at the Design of Medical Devices conference!
Aasiyah Adnan and Saani Kulkarni were selected to present their BIOE498 Soft Robotics medical simulator final project at the DMD student showcase!
David Wilcoski and Rahul Sridharan presented their paper, "Gelatin Material Properties and their Role in Increasing Medical Task Trainer Fidelity" at the Medical Device Education & Training session at DMD.
04/2025 The SIIP & Share Podcast has launched! Golecki is part of a team of faculty, staff, and students who created a podcast to disseminate the education innovations in the Grainger College of Engineering at UIUC.
Check it out on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
02/2025 - PhD Candidate, Sandra Edward, discussed gripper morphology with the topology optimization working group.
2024
11/2024 Jump ARCHES Cushion research team meet up at OSF Urbana.
10/2024 Golecki attends NSF LSAMP PI/PD Meeting with SCI-LSAMP project co-PIs in Washington, DC.
10/2024 Natalie Taylor presents at the BMES Annual Conference
10/2024 Dr. Golecki is a mentor for the new UIUC First Gen Scholars Research Program.
10/2024 New funding: Golecki joins the co-PI team for the Southern and Central Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (SCI-LSAMP) project. U of I leads new NSF-funded alliance to increase opportunities for minority students in STEM.
6/2024 New paper in Soft Robotics: Educational Soft Underwater Robot with an Electromagnetic Actuation by R. Hennig, A. Beaudette, H. Golecki, C. Walsh, https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2021.0181
6-2024 - Golecki Group members co-authored papers on a range of education topics at ASEE National Meeting in Portland, OR this year. Check out papers we contributed to this year below:
Golecki, H. M., & Jensen, K., & Klebbe, K. T., & Tran, T., & McNeela, E. A. (2024, June), Board 332: Measuring the Impact of a Soft Robotics Curriculum Embedded in Physics Classes on Students' Engineering Knowledge, Identity, and Career Interest Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--46913
Golecki, H. M., & Chung, N. Y., & Tran, T., & Liang, P. (2024, June), Improving Outreach Interactivity in the Virtual Environment – Evaluation of A Computer Vision Controlled Soft Robotic Hand to Broaden Participation in Bioengineering Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47592
Bethke, E., & Ansari, A., & Bradley, J., & Amos, J. R., & Golecki, H. M. (2024, June), An Adaptive Scaffolding Approach Based on Team Dynamics in an Integrated Masters and Undergraduate Bioengineering Capstone Design Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--46542
Bethke, E., & Ansari, A., & Amos, J. R., & Bradley, J., & Ochia, R., & Golecki, H. M. (2024, June), Bridging Extracurricular Skill Needs in Bioengineering Capstone Design with Just-in-Time Workshops Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48410
Reck, R. M., & TerBush, J. R., & Cvetkovic, C., & Golecki, H. M., & Schmitz, C. D., & Ansell, K., & Mussulman, D., & Radhakrishnan, C., & James, I. H. (2024, June), Getting Started Teaching an Undergraduate Engineering Laboratory Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47496
Golecki with collaborator, Karen Klebbe, presenting their poster on soft robotics lessons for high school students.
5-2024 - Golecki co-organized a workshop with Dr. Laura Gaviria (UTSA) at the 2024 BME Summit. The workshop entitled, "Industry Preparation through Capstone Panel Discussion" welcomed industry panelists John Shea, Robert Kallen, and John Crombie for the discussion.
5-2024 - Congratulations to former Golecki Group undergraduate researchers, Omolola Okesanjo and Cornell Horne on their graduate from ECE! Omolola and Cornell are continuing on to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University and UIUC! I-L-L!
5-2024 - Congratulations to lab members, Isaiah Rigo and Jason Robinson for winning an Innovate & Iterate Prototyping Microgrant during the 2024 Cozad New Venture Challenge for our soft robotics enabled concept for pressure sore relief. Congrats Isaiah and Jason!
5-2024 - Congratulations to Lucy Cinnamon and Daniella Chapman on their Outstanding Presentation award at the university wide Undergraduate Research Symposium. Lucy and Daniella were awarded for their presentation, "Fostering Future Innovators: A Pedagogical Approach to Introduce Engineering Design and Robotics in Early Science Education". In more exciting news, our paper on this work with Conor Walsh's Harvard Biodesign Lab is accepted for publication at Science Scope!
5-2024 - New papers describe experiential learning elective courses available in UIUC BIOE.
4/2024 - Congratulations to graduating seniors Mayura Kulkarni, Anthony Cruz Macedo, Natalie Taylor and juniors Lucy Cinnamon and Daniella Chapman-Rienstra on their presentations at the campus-wide UIUC Undergraduate Research Symposium!
4/2024 - Golecki presented a talk at the Rehab Engineering session at the Design of Medical Devices conference in Minneapolis, MN.
2023
6/2023 - We presented the curriculum from our NSF RIEF project to Baltimore area science teachers at an ASEE Pre College Engineering Education workshop entitled, "Designing Squishy Robots to Teach Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry” at the Towson University Center for STEM Excellence in Baltimore, MD.
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6/2023 - Congratulations from David Medina on his presentation of our paper "Pre-College Robotics: Best Practices for Adapting Research to Outreach" at the ASEE National Conference in Baltimore, MD. Awesome to see the Block I shining on the #ASEELivingWall! Way to go, David!
4/2023 - Congratulations to Clare Booth Luce scholar, Charmaine Nieves, and ISUR scholar, Jaylynn Kim on their poster presentations at the 2023 ISUR Expo!
4/2023 - Congratulations to Tyler, Arsh, Jackie, and Jorge on their poster at the UIUC Undergraduate Research Symposium
2022
12/2022 - Thanks to Lucy Brizzolara for designing us a new group logo! And thanks to Jaylynn and Katelyn for printing stickers for the group! How fun!
11/2022 - Congratulations to Jorge Jimenez and his Sandia grad mentor, Georgia Kauffman, on their Honorable Mention ribbon for their poster at the annual MRS Meeting in Boston, MA!
11/2022 - NSF EFRI REM Scholars from UIUC head to Boston for the 2022 Materials Research Society meeting to present posters with Harvard and Bunker Hill Community College Scholars. Obligatory stop at the UIUC "I" in O'Hare!
11/2022 - Fall 2022 Golecki Group photo!
11/15/2022 - First snow fall of the season on campus!
10/2022 - Congratulations to Jason and Thomas on their presentations at the BMES Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX!
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9/2022 - NSF EFRI REM Scholars had the opportunity to visit the Kim Lab @ UIUC to discuss all things robotics!
8/2022 - Congratulations to 2022-2023 Clare Booth Luce scholars, Charmaine Nieves and Maya Grant!
7/2022 - Thanks to summer researchers, Jason Robinson and Thomas Tran, for hosting high school campers interested in bioengineering in the lab today for some hands on soft robotics activities!
5/2022 - Congratulations to all of the group members that presented their work on campus this month!
4/2022 - Congratulations to Hannah and Drashti for presenting their work at the Design of Medical Devices Conference!
2021
10/2021 - Jorge Jimenez presented a poster from his research at Sandia National Labs at the UIUC-Sandia Collaborative Conference.
10/2021 - NSF EFRI REM and UIUC IDEA GIANT Undergraduate Researchers share about soft robotics at the Fall Research Fair
10/2021 - Phil and Thomas present a virtual outreach activity in a poster session & Dr. Golecki poses with UIUC BMES Student chapter at BMES Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL!
9/2021 - Holly presented a poster from the group's NSF RIEF project at the NSF EEC Conference.
9/2021 - Congrats to Maya and Ilalee for their first place prize in the TechSAge Hello Robot Pitch Competition!
9/2021 - Golecki Group Lab Photo
7/2021 - Great work this summer, Adia and Alyssa! Congratulations on a successful summer internship with our collaborator, Dr Bryan Kaehr at Sandia National Labs!
6/2021 - Congratulations to Adia Radecka Jakubczak, selected as a 2021 DaRin Butz Foundation Research Scholar.
5/2021 - Another successful BIOE435/6 Senior Capstone course wraps up. The teams really persevered this year! Their work is highlighted by iSTEM here.
4/2021 - Sara presented on the group's GIANT funded project: Building Confidence and Increasing Engagement through Undergraduate Research this week at the IDEA Institute.
4/2021 - Alyssa, Adia and Sara are presenting their work this week at IEEE Robosoft Conference!
1/2021 - Welcome back to campus Illini! We are excited in innovate in the classroom and in research this semester.
10/2018 - Congratulations to Intel Chen for 2nd Place Prize in the MRS Science as Art competition! Check out his *stunning* pseudocolored butterfly wing SEM image below:
