Stop me if you've heard this one before... I'm a chef-turned-scientist who likes to build stuff and code. I used to be an actor and I love math. Pretty straightforward career path, right? The truth is, I like to make things. In 2011, I started my own catering company so I could make fun and interesting dishes for my clients (and because it's an unofficial LA law that you cater if you're an actor). Then one random day, while catering a corporate viewing party, I was fortunate enough to see Dr. Hugh Herr's TED talk. While seamlessly walking around the stage on his two lower-limb prosthetics, Dr. Herr brought everyone to tears as he described how he used state-of-the-art prosthetics to restore a ballerina's ability to dance after losing her leg in the Boston Marathon bombing. There wasn't a dry eye in the audience as we watched this woman dance for the first time since the terrorist attack. I sat there speechless as I witness the intersection of art and math make a difference in this woman's life. I was so inspired by this story that the next day I decided to go back to school to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Six months later, I said goodbye to catering and hello to graduate school. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at USC as a member of Valero Lab. I learned a lot about biomechanics, motor control, control theory, machine learning, and neuroscience. I wrote numerous computer programs -- some for research and some just because I wanted to build something useful -- and I learned how to collaborate across disciplines while participating in an academically diverse lab. After graduating in 2020, I was fortunate enough to land at Sarcos Robotics where I have continued to grow and learn while pushing the bleeding edge of robotics and exoskeletons. It's honestly been a wild ride. I pride myself on being a driven individual who likes to not just fundamentally understand how things work, but also why. I strive to always ensure that my work is both efficient and polished so that I might strike a balance between productivity and creativity. And I thrive on collaborations—solving big problems requires any and every perspective to make breakthroughs and I believe communication and teamwork are vital to this approach.
GPA: 3.955 (Provost Fellow)
GPA: 3.95
GPA: 3.60 (Minors: Chemistry, Biochemistry)
Brain-Body Dynamics Lab w. Dr. Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
BME 620L - Applied Electrophysiology w. Dr. Gerald E. Loeb
BME 402 - Control and Communication in the Nervous System w. Dr. Bartlett Mel
iCue Catering: I COOK, U EAT
Frontiers in Robotics 2021 Peer-Reviewed Article (Preprint Available Here)
IEEE/RSJ IROS 2020 Peer-Reviewed Abstract (Preprint Available Here)
bioRxiv 2020.07.08.194381 (Available Here)
Journal of Biomechanics 2017 Peer-Reviewed Full-Length Article (Available Here)
Github Repositories Available at danhagen/NonlinearControl and danhagen/ddp
Github Repository Available at danhagen/danpy
Github Repository Available at usc-bbdl/figtree