Human–robot interaction that keeps people in charge.
We build bionic hands, wearable sensing and AI teammates, and test them with the people who will use them.
The HERO lab works where human factors engineering, neuroergonomics and robotics meet. We read intent, workload and embodiment from muscle, brain and eye signals, model how people and machines share work, and use both to decide how much control a device or AI should take.
Our testbed is the upper-limb prosthesis. The same principles carry to emergency response, triage and child health. The lab is directed by Dr. Junho Park, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Calgary.
- Funding
- $3.6M secured across 15 awards, including an NSERC Discovery Grant as sole PI (2026–2031)
- Publications
- 20 journal articles and 36 conference papers, in venues including npj Digital Medicine, Scientific Reports, ACM CHI and Human Factors
- Students
- First authors on 20 papers since 2024, with three HFES student paper awards
- Service
- Chair-elect of the HFES Human Performance Modeling and Augmented Cognition Technical Groups
Research
Research overview
Shared autonomy for bionic limbs
Prosthetic hands that share the work of a grasp without taking ownership away from the user.
Trustworthy biosignal AI
EMG, EEG and eye-tracking decoders audited to hold up across users, sessions and conditions.
Human–AI teams in emergency care
AI and XR teammates for dispatch, triage and first response that adapt to operator workload.
Assistive technology for children
Orthoses, wearables and interfaces designed for bodies and abilities that keep changing.
Built in our lab
We design and 3D-print our own prosthetic hands, hooks, grippers and bypass sockets. Making the hardware in-house means a new terminal device can be printed, fitted and tested with participants without waiting on a supplier.
- Bambu Lab H2D multi-material printer and a Sovol printer
- Printed hands, hooks, two-finger grippers and bypass sockets
- Fillauer hooks and wrists for side-by-side comparison
Inside the lab
Gallery
3D-printed robotic hand 
Box and Block Test with a bypass prosthesis 
Wireless EMG on the forearm 
Eye tracking with EMG 
Assembling a printed hand 
Session with a person with limb loss 
EMG driving simulator 
SHAP hand assessment
Awards
All student honors- Best Student Paper AwardHFES Human Performance Modeling Technical Group, 2026Andrew Choi and Daniel ChoiFrom workload to embodiment: Prosthetic Embodiment Score
- Honorable MentionHFES Annual Meeting, 2026Jihyun KimMulti-agent AR decision support for rural emergency department triage
- Sue Bogner Best Student Paper Award, 3rd placeHFES Health Care Technical Group, 2025Zehaan Walji, Reyansh Badhwar and Parshva DaveMulti-agent systems for remote healthcare
- Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship Jihyun Kim, 2026
- NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award Andrew Choi, 2026
- Fessenden-Trott Scholarship Andrew Choi, 2026
- Min Byung Kee Award Daniel Choi, 2025
Selected publications
- Choi, D.*, Yip, C.*, Choi, A.*, & Park, J.npj Digital Medicine, 2026
- Badhwar, R.*, Walji, Z.*, Dave, P.*, & Park, J.Scientific Reports, 2026
- Liu, Y., Park, J., Delgado, D., Music, A., Berman, J., Ruiz, J., Kaber, D., Huang, H., & Zahabi, M.IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 2026
- Kim, J.*, & Park, J.ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2026
- Choi, A.*, Choi, D.*, & Park, J.Proceedings of the HFES Annual Meeting, 20262026 HFES Human Performance Modeling TG Best Student Paper Award
News
- Invited seminar at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute
- Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship
- K-TAG Technical Seminar, AKCSE
- Space-Defence Technologies Alberta: BlueTrace
- Major Innovation Fund, Government of Alberta
- Invited talks in Korea
Supported by
With additional support from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Space-Defence Technologies Alberta and the University of Calgary.