Past  Research

Prior to my U.Va. appointment, for my Master's thesis, I developed a physical breast model that uses a balloon technique for training healthcare practitioners in breast cancer screening and holds a patent on the simulator. After that I became very interested in the physiological and psychophysical aspects underlying tactile sensation capability. For my Ph.D. dissertation, my research involved building solid mechanics models of skin microstructure to better understand how people perceive tactile edge stimuli. I developed finite element models of the human fingertip to analyze pertinent skin microstructure and more accurately predict human tactile sensory capability.

			The Design and Evaluation of the Breast Cancer Simulator developed and patented a physical simulator that uses a balloon technique to train practitioners in breast cancer screening determined that non-natural augmented feedback via pulsating balloons can help draw a trainee's attention to specific stimulus dimensions and increase detections and decrease false alarms Work done by: Gregory Gerling In conjuction with Professors Geb W. Thomas, Edwin L. Dove, and Alicia Weissman
			Finite Element Models to Understand the Sensate Function of Skin Microstructures utilized finite element analysis (FEA) to investigate if skin microstructurs enchance neural encoding analyzed how the distribution of stress and strain at touch receptors is impacted by papillary ridges, intermediate ridges, stiffness and undulating geometry at the epidermal-dermal interface and stress and strain invariant measures the overall result of the investigations suggest that the proximity of SAI receptors to the epidermal-dermal stiffness border enhances their response the resultant lens analogy suggest that skin microstructure focuses stress/strain to touch receptors as a convex lens focuses light to a point Work done by: Gregory Gerling In conjunction with Professor Geb W. Thomas