Multisensory Haptic Engagement

Just as our eyes can combine red, green, and blue hues to produce color vision, our skin can perceive physical contact through the coordination of multiple discrete receptors. We have demonstrated a small-scale transducer capable of selectively engaging independent classes of mechanoreceptors. Untethered arrays of these transducers connect wirelessly to LiDAR as the basis for a visual sensory substitution system.

Bioelastic state recovery for haptic sensory substitution, Nature, 2024. Full freedom-of-motion actuators as advanced haptic interfaces, Science, 2025. Skin-integrated systems for power efficient, programmable thermal sensations across large body areas, PNAS, 2023.

*Visualization by Gabriele Meilikhov (Muza Productions)

Therapeutic Biomedical Systems For Patient Care

As suggested by the emergence of systems for virtual and augmented reality, capabilities for fast, programmable manipulation of human sensory perception have wide-ranging applications in social media, gaming, and entertainment. Particularly compelling opportunities exist in therapeutic biomedical systems that apply these somatosensory interfaces towards substituting and augmenting missing sensory capabilities. Ongoing studies aim to apply these systems to help people with sensory impairments and intractable pain.

Bioelectronics for targeted pain management, Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, 2025.

Therapeutic Biomedical Systems For Patient Care

The Skin Breathes: Monitoring Transepidermal Gases

In recent work, we demonstrate a wearable device capable of concentrating gases at the interface of the skin. Although we think of our skin as being impermeable, in reality, it is constantly exchanging gases with the environment. This device continuously measures humidity and volatile organic compounds emerging from the skin. We demonstrate that this non-invasive, non-contact device can help detect changes in the skin that were not visible to the naked eye. In murine studies, the platform differentiated diabetic from healthy wound-healing trajectories days before visual cues appeared, demonstrating its promise for early monitoring of chronic wounds.

A non-contact wearable device for monitoring epidermal molecular flux, Nature, 2025. Wireless, Wearable System for the Continuous Monitoring of Epidermal Water Flux, EEE-EMBS International Conference on Body Sensor Networks, 2024.

The Skin Breathes: Monitoring Transepidermal Gases

Selective Peripheral Neuro-modulation with Iontronic Materials

Developing effective means of interfacing with neural tissue is one of the major scientific challenges of our time. While haptic interfaces offer a powerful means of delivering information to afferent channels, motor activation requires a different approach. This research applies ion-concentration modulation with ion-selective membranes, leveraging both the intrinsic selectivity of chemical modulation and the spatiotemporal resolution of direct electrical stimulation. These principles establish the basis for an electrochemical system that sources ions as therapeutic stock from the surrounding physiological media, regenerating them in situ, for the purposes of continuous neuromodulation.

Electrochemical modulation enhances the selectivity of peripheral neurostimulation in vivo, PNAS, 2022. Rapid and low cost manufacturing of cuff electrodes, Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2021. Real-time, dynamic monitoring of selectively driven ion-concentration polarization, Electrochimica Acta, 2022. Numerical modeling of plunging jets of brine: mass transport and implications for desalination plant outfalls, Desalination, 2023. Interfacial ion transfer and current limiting in neutral-carrier ion-selective membranes: A detailed numerical model, Journal of Membrane Science, 2019.

Selective Peripheral Neuro-modulation with Iontronic Materials

Mixed Reality for Enhanced Teaching and Learning

We are working to expand the usage of augmentative technologies to address long-standing challenges in mathematics teaching and learning. Our augmented reality system for embodied learning bridges the gap between mathematical representations (e.g., symbols) and the everyday practices of children. Overall, this body of work informs new theory and practices for introducing intelligent systems into mathematics education.

Augmented reality for mathematics achievement: A meta-analysis of main and moderator effects, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 2025. Augmented reality for area measurement reasoning of elementary students, Educational Technology Research and Development, 2025.

Mixed Reality for Enhanced Teaching and Learning

Wearable Bioelectronic Interfaces

Prof. Flavin’s early work contributed to foundational projects in the area of flexible electronics and wearable bioelectronics over the last decade. This work introduced new concepts into engineering science, including the controlled buckling of 3D structures and assembly of soft compartmentalized flexible circuits, with broad biomedical implications.

Soft network composite materials with deterministic and bio-inspired designs, Nature Communications, 2015. Assembly of micro/nanomaterials into complex, three-dimensional architectures by compressive buckling, Science, 2015. Soft microfluidic assemblies of sensors, circuits, and radios for the skin, Science, 2014.