Principal Investigator

Kris L. Dorsey, PhD

Kris Dorsey is an assistant professor of engineering in the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College. She was a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Diego. Dr. Dorsey graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and earned her Bachelors of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Olin College.

Kris founded The MicroSMITHie Lab at Smith College to investigate micro- and miniature-scale sensor design and to prepare undergraduates for graduate study in engineering. Her current research interests include strain-stable, hyperelastic components, novel morphology soft sensors, and sensors for soft robots and wearable devices. 

Dr. Dorsey has co-authored several publications on hyperelastic strain sensors, novel soft lithography processes, and the stability of gas chemical sensors. In 2019, she received the NSF CAREER award.

Faculty Page
Contact information

Curriculum Vitae

Current Lab Members

Senior Thesis

Special study: Elastomeric Origami

Special study: Tessellated Origami Sensor Design

Senior Thesis:

Special study, Summer SURF: Contact force sensor placement on soft gripper for deep-sea organism manipulation

Special Study

Alumn*

M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering student, Carnegie Mellon University

Special study: Fabrication of EcoFlex-EGaIn strain sensors

Summer SURF: Flexible, wearable torsion sensors for detecting arm motion

M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering student, Carnegie Mellon University

Summer SURF: A testbed for stretchable strain sensor characterization

M.S. in Electrical Engineering student , University of Pennsylvania

Special study: Galinstan switch for curvature measurements

Special study, senior thesis: Anisotropic strain sensors

Graduate research assistant, Princeton University

Special studies: Fundamentals of Microelectronics

M.S. Student, University of Michigan

Special study: Testbed for strain sensors

Special study: Ice as a sacrificial layer for EcoFlex casting

Graduate research assistant, University of Copenhagen

Honors thesis extension: Metal oxide gas sensors