Eric Schearer

About Eric Schearer

I mix expertise in engineering with courage and caring to empower people to live their lives with greater purpose and conviction. This happens everyday in my research and in my relationships with colleagues and with students I teach and mentor.My research aims to reanimate the paralyzed limbs of people with spinal cord injuries by using functional electrical stimulation. I work with people with high spinal cord injuries who cannot move their arms to feed themselves, groom themselves, or even scratch an itch on their face. Rather than the person\'s nervous system stimulating the muscles to produce motion, the muscles are stimulated by electrodes surgically implanted in muscles and motor neurons. To make someone\'s paralyzed arm move I develop methods to determine which muscles to stimulate and when to stimulate them given a desired motion. This research will help restore basic daily functions to people with spinal cord injuries.I teach and mentor college students. As a mentor in a program in ethics and civic life I guide college students in creating a sustainable change in their community. They go into neighborhoods and talk with people they wouldn\'t otherwise talk with and they present their ideas to university officials and local power brokers. I taught calculus in a summer program to prepare new college students of underrepresented minority groups for the rigors of college. I made them comfortable with being challenged intellectually. My students learn that to be great in engineering or in life, you need to go out on a limb to make things happen. They also learn that if you prepare yourself, that limb isn\'t so scary. I have inspired my coworkers, friends, and colleagues by leading them on trips to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico to build houses. People learn from me that you can affect others\' lives and your own with a little courage and the confidence gained from knowledge and experience in challenging situations.Specialties: human motor control, robotics, mentoring, teaching

Experience

1. Staff Scientist

   The MetroHealth System (Cleveland, OH)

   Dec 2024 — Present

Education

• University of Notre Dame

  BS, Mechanical Engineering

  1997 — 2002

• Carnegie Mellon University

  MS, Robotics

  2005 — 2006

• Northwestern University

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Mechanical Engineering

  2009 — 2014

• University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business

  MBA, Business Administration

  2000 — 2002

Skills

• Dynamical Systems
• Mechanical Engineering
• Biomechanics
• Machine Learning
• Feedback Control Systems
• Control Theory
• Robotics
• System Identification
• Neuroengineering
• Failure Analysis
• Nonlinear Dynamics