Professor Rezaul Begg

Professor Begg is Chair in Assistive Technologies within the Program in Assistive Technology Innovation (PATI), a research and development collaboration between Victoria University, Defence Science Technology (DST) Group and The University of Melbourne. Prior to commencing at Victoria University, he held appointments at Deakin University, the University of Aberdeen (UK) and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

At Victoria University he leads a multidisciplinary “Gait and Intelligent Technologies” research group, comprising 8 PhD students and 3 postdoctoral research fellows. This group’s focus is technologies with application to both unimpaired and pathological gait. He uses a combination of engineering and biomedical principles to understand and diagnose locomotion-related deficits, and to provide intelligent technology solutions to improving walking efficiency and safety, and minimising injuries during manual handling tasks. Techniques have been developed to improve walking, mitigate injury risk and reduce balance-loss across a range of populations. Projects include: sensor technology and biofeedback applications to gait diagnosis and remediation; interventions to improve gait in older adults and patients with stroke or diabetic neuropathy; machine leaning and predictive biomechanics; wearable intelligent assistive devices and exoskeletons for enhancing physical and physiological performance.

Professor Begg has published one research monograph, 4 edited books and over 300 refereed papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings. His research support has included 6 Australian Research Council (ARC) grants, a University-Hospital multicentre National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded project, 2 Australian Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group grants and the Victorian Government’s 2022 international partnership (Veski) programme award. His research has a primary focus on knowledge transfer and commercial translation, including collaborations with Australian (Intertile Pty Ltd, Global Safe Australia, Cobalt Pty Ltd) and international companies; ASICS Oceania, CaiTac and CYBERDYNE (Japan). Patents are held for gait-related devices, including force-absorbing corrective insoles (International Patent no: 1032309) and a real-time biofeedback system for treadmill-based gait rehabilitation (US Patent no: 20170360333).

Professor Begg is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology  and an editorial board member of the Journal of Biomechanics and Sensors. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the ISB and ANZSB. He has received the ICISIP Best Paper award, the Victoria University Vice Chancellor’s citation award for Excellence in Research, a Gold Medal from BUET and Chancellor’s Prize from Bangladesh Government for Academic Excellence.