About

Dr. Priya Patel is an Assistant Professor in Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton, where she directs the SMARTT Lab and co-directs the Motor Behavior Lab. She leads an interdisciplinary program at the intersection of motor development, biomechanics, and engineering that leverages wearable sensors and machine learning to quantify infants’ and young children’s movements and link them to later neurodevelopment. Her work emphasizes automated movement analysis, early developmental biomarkers, and the biomechanics of motor skill acquisition. Current projects range from classifying spontaneous and exploratory behaviors with custom algorithms to building sensor systems for home-based infant assessment. Ultimately, her research aims to enable earlier identification of developmental differences and to inform targeted intervention strategies.

Education

• Ph.D. in Kinesiology (Cognitive Motor Neuroscience) — Michigan State University, 2022
• M.S. in Kinesiology (Motor Neuroscience) — Texas A&M University, 2015
• Bachelor of Physiotherapy — Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, 2013