People

Dr. Donald Ruffatto III earned the B.S. degree magna cum laude in 2009, the M.S. degree in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in 2015, all in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2011 He was awarded a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship to support his Ph.D. work on unique electrostatic and gecko-like attachment mechanisms for robotic climbing, gripping, and manipulator applications. As part of the fellowship program he worked eight months at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab throughout his graduate studies to further enhance his research.

After graduation, Dr. Ruffatto briefly continued work at the Illinois Institute of Technology as a Senior Research Associate on improving the novel hybrid adhesive developed during his Ph.D. research. Currently, he is working as a Robotics Mechanical Engineer at JPL on the development of small robotic climbing platforms which utilize the novel hybrid adhesive in combination with mirco-spines.