Q&A With Carl Curran
At Humotech, our mission is to accelerate the development of wearable machines that improve mobility and quality of life. Behind every piece of technology we build is a team focused on making complex robotic systems more accessible to researchers, clinicians, and innovators around the world.
One of the people helping drive that mission forward is Principal Design Engineer, Carl Curran.
Carl joined the team as an intern in 2015 while the company was emerging from the PhD research of Josh Caputo at Carnegie Mellon University, a decade later he’s now defining concepts into adaptable, practical, and user-driven systems that power the Caplex® platform, enabling researchers to rapidly prototype, test, and evaluate wearable robotics and prosthetic technologies.
We recently sat down with Carl to talk about engineering philosophy, the realities of building novel hardware in a startup environment, and what motivates him to design systems that help others move research forward.
Career Journey & Evolution at Humotech
Cassie Slarb: You’ve been with Humotech since almost the very beginning—starting as an intern in 2015. What were those early days like, and how have you seen the company evolve since then?
Carl Curran: “Every startup’s origin is a little bit hectic. We started very small. It was basically just me and Josh in the basement of the lab that Josh was starting out in at Carnegie Mellon University. In that first year, we went from the lab, to Josh’s basement, and then his garage where we were running all the general operations and design from. So very close-knit, very intimate environments.
Being so small, we had to do everything in-house. We didn’t really have a lot of relationships established in that first year. I was the main hardware engineer, the production engineer, the troubleshooting person, and the customer support person for many aspects of the company.
Since then, we’ve been selective in who we’ve brought on and tried to grow at a sustainable pace, so we can do more with a curated group of people here.”
Cassie Slarb: In your 10+ years with Humotech, what was a moment where you realized you were building something special?
Carl Curran: “I remember early on when we were at the University of Nebraska Omaha in a lab with Kota Takahashi and Philippe Malcolm. They had all these PhD students there. As we were walking them through the system and training them, giving them the driving wheel, I realized how much of what we were doing was breaking down barriers to entry.
These experts and students who had a plan and an idea could just do it from day one, without slogging through a lot of details.
On the clinical side, there’s also an anecdote from the Seattle VA. They were doing research emulating real prosthetic feet. One of their patients happened to have the same foot they were emulating. When it came up on their list, the patient pointed to the foot he had taken off earlier and said, ‘I know this foot. It’s mine.’
Those anecdotes make me appreciate the work we’re doing—making things more accessible on the technical side and improving how patients can trial and assess what works best for them.”
Cassie Slarb: How has your role shifted over time, and what aspects of design and engineering keep you excited year after year?
Carl Curran: “At the very beginning I came out of grad school and went straight into Humotech. I was purely mechanical design with a mishmash of other knowledge I brought with me.
Very quickly I had to add a lot of hats and become a jack of all trades, because our products aren’t really one product. They’re more like six different products and the combinations they create.
I’ve had to wear the electrical engineering hat, controls engineering hat, and more recently, get involved in software development.
That engineering aspect has ballooned and shifted my role to be much broader and more system-level focused.”
Engineering Leadership & Impact
Cassie Slarb: As Principal Design Engineer, you’ve shaped some of the core systems and prototypes that define Humotech today. What’s a product you’re especially proud of?
Carl Curran: “Our ankle prosthesis is definitely something I’m proud of. It’s the most polished of our products.
Josh had the original design, and over the years I’ve worked to improve it—making it more functional, safer, more reliable, and cleaner overall.
I’ll never be fully satisfied, but I’m very pleased with how it has turned out.”
Cassie Slarb: What engineering challenge do you find yourself drawn to again and again in your work?
Carl Curran: “The main thing is technical accessibility.
Often systems are overly complicated by design. Engineers do great work, but they sometimes don’t have the time to make their work approachable by non-experts.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how efficient someone’s code is if a new hire can’t read through it and understand it.
The more accessible a design is, the lower the barrier to entry. More people can get involved, development can happen faster, and the system becomes more useful.”
Cassie Slarb: Are there any behind-the-scenes engineering wins people might be surprised to learn about?
Carl Curran: “Early on I had to become an impromptu electrical engineer and hunt down sources of electrical noise both in the lab and in our system.
We’ve done a good job working on that and dealing with the black magic box of electrical noise, which is a problem in every field.
People benefit from those improvements, but they might not think about them at all.”
Innovation & Company Growth
Cassie Slarb: What major leaps stand out from the early Caplex® prototypes to today?
Carl Curran: “I like how easy we’ve made it to customize things. The hardware is very modular—pick and place, choose your own adventure.
On the GUI side, I don’t want to think about what someone’s controller does. I just want the user to have easy access to all the inputs and outputs they want.
If someone has an idea or implementation, they can proceed immediately.”
Cassie Slarb: How has Humotech’s approach to rapid prototyping and design evolved?
Carl Curran: “Because our team is small, when we make something novel for the first time it has to work the first time.
That requires a well-managed design process—starting with conceptual work on a whiteboard, getting ideas out quickly, and moving toward physical mock-ups.
Over time we’ve shifted from focusing on one product to thinking about the overall system.”
Cassie Slarb: What excites you most about the direction Humotech is heading?
Carl Curran: “It’s exciting to see clinical research becoming realized.
Seeing the passion that clinical researchers have for improving people’s lives has been fantastic. Watching that work move from early collaborations to something real is a very exciting phase.”
Personal Passion & Perspective
Cassie Slarb: You’re known for your creativity outside of work, too. What hobbies or side projects fuel your engineering mindset?
Carl Curran: “I like making things in general. For years it’s been cooking, baking, or brewing.
I also love learning new things—taking classes, diving into technical rabbit holes, or exploring MIT OpenCourseWare.
Sometimes just taking a random walk and finding things refreshes my mindset.”
Cassie Slarb: Do you ever pull inspiration from unexpected places?
Carl Curran: “I sometimes find myself in the technical section of a bookstore collecting old textbooks. It’s inspiring to see how experts in their fields explained things plainly and sometimes even with humor.
I also follow robotics work like what Disney Research does. They recently built an Olaf robot that will be in the parks, which is fantastic.
I once went to a talk by Mark Raibert from Boston Dynamics. Hearing about his journey and talking with other researchers who have had big impacts reinforces that many of them don’t think of themselves as experts even though their work clearly shows they are.”
Cassie Slarb: What’s a philosophy that guides your work?
Carl Curran: “I really think anyone can learn anything in any field if they have the resources available and a guided path.
Whether it’s robotics, controls, biology, baking, or anything in life—anyone can learn anything given the time, resources, and guidance.”
Cassie Slarb: What’s one favorite Humotech memory that you think captures the spirit of the team?
Carl Curran: “On the first trip to Seattle to meet with our collaborators at the VA, we all (Josh, the Seattle VA team, their families, and I) went on a hike by North Bend to Little Si. It was a good hike to the peak, but coming down we passed by an injured hiker and the first thing our collaborator, David Morgenroth, did was stop to immediately offer assistance and help assess what was needed. It gave me a clear sense of the character of the people we were collaborating with. More chaos occurred later that same week on another hike when we locked ourselves out of the car.”
Cassie Slarb: What do you value most in the way Humotech tackles problems together?
Carl Curran: “I like to think quality is a key aspect for us. We try to do things as well as we can and make things right the first time.
We may be scrappy and not have unlimited resources, but we work with others to understand the problem, tackle it, iterate as much as we can, and have productive back-and-forth discussions that enable us to push the limits in the field.”
Looking Ahead: Expanding What’s Possible
Cassie Slarb: What are you most energized to build next? Any dream projects or design challenges on your radar?
Carl Curran: “One of the things Josh mentioned when I first joined was making a Baymax-style humanoid robot, which would be fun but isn’t necessarily in the cards right now.
I keep comparison sheets of devices in the field—exoskeletons, prosthetics, hip devices—and compare performance metrics.
One thing I’d like to try someday is seeing someone run on our prosthesis within the weight and torque limits.
I’d also love to make the system even more modular, with sensors and actuators that you could daisy-chain together so people could build wearable systems more freely.
Another idea is building a full-body brace used to iterate on wearable form and comfort so we can better guide device design.”
Cassie Slarb: What advice would you give future interns or engineers joining a fast-moving innovation team?
Carl Curran: “It’s going to be a roller coaster ride.
You have to be prepared to wear a lot of hats, learn new things outside your specialty, sometimes on your own. Being proactive, asking questions, and diving into material is important.
You also need to focus on quality because the things you build need to function for years in environments where excited users might accidentally add a few too many zeros somewhere.
You have to explore, learn as much as you can, and make things that function well but also look and feel good.”
Engineering the Future of Mobility Innovation
Carl’s approach to engineering reflects the broader philosophy behind Humotech’s technology: build systems that empower others to explore, experiment, and accelerate discovery.
By designing platforms that reduce technical barriers and increase accessibility, engineers like Carl help researchers focus on what matters most — advancing the science of human movement and developing technologies that improve mobility outcomes.
As we expand the capabilities of the Caplex® System, deepen collaborations with researchers and clinicians, and open new pathways for mobility science, Carl’s leadership and design vision remain central to how we build. We’re grateful for the craftsmanship, humor, and ingenuity he brings to every project.
As Carl puts it: “We are driven to make people’s lives easier so that better work can be done faster.”