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Noah Rubin, PhD

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Dr. Noah Rubin

Noah Rubin, PhD

Staff Scientist, Neurorehabilitation and Biomechanics Section
Chief Operating Officer, Neurorobotics Research Group

noah.rubin@nih.gov
301-451-6301

Dr. Noah Rubin is a staff scientist who provides expertise and leadership in the development, implementation and evaluation of novel pediatric exoskeletons and other technology-based neurorehabilitation strategies.

BA, University of California Santa Barbara
PhD, North Carolina State University & University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Dr. Rubin earned a BA in biology with an engineering emphasis from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2017. At UCSB, he researched marine mussel plaque mechanical failure to develop biomimetic wet adhesives and modeled cutaneous hand vibrations to simplify haptic feedback for virtual reality environments.

He earned his PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, co-advised by Drs. He (Helen) Huang and Xiaogang Hu. His thesis focused on improving the quality of life for individuals with lower-limb amputation through neural-machine interfaces. His research used motor unit firings as an alternative movement intent decoder for myoelectric prosthesis control. He also revealed altered motor unit properties in residual muscles after amputation to serve as potential biomarkers to aid prosthesis rehabilitation.

Dr. Rubin joined the Neurorobotics Research Group at the NIH Clinical Center in 2024. In his leisure time, he enjoys walks with his partner and dog, reading, discovering new hiking trails, playing tennis and exploring the local area.
 

  • 2021-22 UNC/NCSU BME Inaugural Graduate Student Service Award, May 2022
  • 3rd Place Engineering, NCSU Grad Student Symposium, April 2022
  • UNC/NCSU BME Travel Award, International Conference on Robotics & Automation, March 2022
  • UNC/NCSU BME Travel Award, Society for Neuroscience, Oct. 2021
  • NSF Accessibility, Rehab, & Movement Science Doctoral Training Fellowship Recipient, March 2018
  • UCSB CCS Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, June 2016
     

N. Rubin, R. Hinson, K. Saul, W. Filer, X. Hu, and H. Huang, “Modified motor unit properties in residual muscle following transtibial amputation,” Journal of Neural Engineering, 2024.

N. Rubin, R. Hinson, K. Saul, X. Hu, and H. Huang, “Ankle Torque Estimation With Motor Unit Discharges in Residual Muscles Following Lower-Limb Amputation,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 31, pp. 4821–4830, 2023.

N. Rubin, Y. Zheng, H. Huang, and X. Hu, “Finger force estimation using motor unit discharges across forearm postures,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 69, no. 9, pp. 2767–2775, 2022.

N. Rubin, W. Liu, X. Hu, and H. H. Huang, “Common Neural Input within and across Lower Limb Muscles: A Preliminary Study,” presented at the 2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, 2021, pp. 6683–6686.