Curious Jon

Situating myself. My name is Jon Sensinger. I was born and raised as a settler near Syracuse, New York, which is in the unceded land of the Onondaga Nation, firekeepers of the Haudenosaunee. I completed my undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago, which is located on the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Nations. I completed my MSc and Ph.D nearby at Northwestern University. After briefly working for the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, I moved to Thailand to be a professor at Mahidol University. After a year I returned to Chicago where I worked as a Research Scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and as a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and cofounded Coapt Engineering LLC. In 2013 I moved to the University of New Brunswick, located on the unceded and unsurrended land of the Wolastoqiyik, where I live, work, and play as a guest in Eqpahak.

What I do. I am the director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New Brunswick, where I lead a team of professors, scientists, engineers, clinicians, and students who all share a common goal of making an impact on the lives of others that extends from our neighborhoods to the international community within the domains of mobility and rehabilitation engineering. My own research focuses on prostheses, exoskeletons, human-robot interactions, and applying optimal control theory to complex systems such as spinal cord rehabilitation or public health policies. Outside of work I love to learn and coach Taekwondo, play and coach chess, play Ultimate Frisbee, ride a fixie along the Wolastoq or a mountain bike through the hills, make and play instruments, learn more about my two-legged, four-legged, and rooted neighbours, learn from and explore topics with my family and friends, snuggle with our puppy, and read/recommend books.

What I care about. I’m a generally curious person who values integrity, wonder, and future generations. If I’m being honest I prefer ideas and paradigms over facts, and equations more than numbers, and I tend to think that most things in life are well described as long as you know the right math equation for the situation.

How to contact me. Feel free to e-mail me at ideas@curiousjon.ca with ideas, questions, thoughts, and observations. It may take me a bit to respond because I try to value thoughtful reflection over quick responses.

Books. I think one of the best ways to know someone is to know what they read, and I am always looking for / giving good book recommendations. Below you can find a list of books that I’ve recently read. I’ve read them for a variety of reasons, including learning skills to be a better coach, better appreciating the perspective of those I have trouble understanding, or picking up a book that genuinely excited one of my kids. I don’t necessarily recommend all of them (and I’ve since grown to like some more or less), but undoubtably each of these books, in their own way, shaped and informed dialogues I’ve had with others.

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