Research Associate

Garrett Lundegard joined IHMC as a Research Associate in April 2024 working with the robotics team. He is an electrical engineer who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Salisbury University. He spent five years as an electrical and embedded systems engineer before pursuing his master’s degree, which he completed at Hamburg University of Applied Science in Hamburg, Germany.

Garrett has worked on testing radar with Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md.; on an active protection system for defending Army vehicles; and on a COSPAS-SARSAT emergency beacon for NOAA and NASA. He has also worked multiple internships at Paul Reed Smith Guitars in Maryland, working directly with Paul Smith to design guitar amplifiers for Carlos Santana, Derek Trucks, John Mayer, and more.

The interdisciplinary nature of IHMC’s workflow was appealing to him given that his research interests focused on how electrical systems, robotic or otherwise, that interact with the human brain and body. During his master’s degree, he led a team to design a system for controlling a robotic hand using electromyography signals from the forearm of a person during flexion and extension movements.

In his free time, he is usually playing guitar, doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, playing soccer, or planning his next surf trip.