Rachael Bevill Burns joined the Haptic Intelligence Department in 2017 as a Whitaker International Fellow. She successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in February 2024. Her doctoral work focused on developing a Haptic Empathetic Robot Animal for Children with Autism (HERA). Rachael's research addresses human-robot interaction from multiple angles, including building novel robot tactile sensors, creating believable and intelligent robot emotions, and investigating robot design for target populations.

Rachael earned her Bachelor and Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering at the George Washington University in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Rachael conducted her graduate research in socially assistive robotics with Dr. Chung Hyuk Park in the Assistive Robotics and Telemedicine (ART-Med) Lab at GW.

Rachael was named a 2021 HRI Pioneer and a 2023 RSS Pioneer for her work on HERA. She also attended the 2021 Rising Star Workshop by the Center for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop and received an Honorable Mention for the 2024 MPI-IS Outstanding Female Ph.D. Student Prize.

In January 2025, Rachael joined the University of Tennessee as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where she leads the Social Tactile & Assistive Robotics and Intelligence (STARI) Lab.

Photo by Axel Griesch