Two IHMC researchers named to top posts in worldwide organizations

Drs. Nicole Rendos and Luigi Penco, a pair of up and coming research scientists at IHMC, were recently appointed to high-level positions in two of the nation’s most prestigious organizations representing scientists and researchers not only in the U.S., but around the world.

The Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine named Rendos its president for 2026 while Penco was appointed co-chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Robotics and Automation Society’s Technical Committee on Telerobotics.

“Nicole and Luigi have been fantastic additions to IHMC,” said IHMC CEO, Morley Stone. “It’s nice to see the two of them recognized not only by us, but also by two external organizations that represent some of the finest scientists in sports medicine and robotics around the world.”

Rendos joined IHMC last year as a research scientist working with the institute’s Healthspan, Resilience and Performance Research team. In 2025, she served as president-elect of the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine and was the program chair for its 2026 Annual Meeting, which drew more than 1,300 members from 10 states and Puerto Rico. The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest exercise science and sports medicine organization in the world with nearly 50,000 members.

Rendos specializes in biomechanics, motor control, rehabilitation and exercise physiology. Much of her work has focused on using real-time gait biofeedback as an intervention for diabetic neuropathy, and muscle use and activation patterns in runners.

Prior to her arrival at IHMC, Rendos was the director of the Gait, Exercise and Rehabilitation Lab at Emory University. Much of her research since earning a Ph.D. from the University of Miami, has focused on biomechanics and rehabilitation medicine.  She is particularly interested in improving functional mobility and the quality of life for people living with chronic disease, primarily diabetes and diabetes-related complications.

At IHMC, she is currently the Principal Investigator of a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health that’s investigating the use of audiovisual biofeedback to improve walking mechanics in individuals with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.  In addition to her work at IHMC, she also is faculty member at the Usha Kundu MD College of Health at the University of West Florida.

Penco is a roboticist who arrived at IHMC in 2022 after receiving his Ph.D. in robotics at the National Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Nancy, France.  He specializes in autonomy, teleoperation and human-robot interfaces for humanoid systems. His research and development work center on advancing the seamless integration between human operators and autonomous robots.

At IHMC, he leads and contributes to several high-impact research initiatives supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). He has also served as the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Valkyrie project, which leveraged IHMC’s software framework to enhance the autonomy and usability of NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot.

He is now the Co-Principal Investigator on ONR’s Squadbot project, which is focused on developing a robotic platform and autonomy algorithms for building exploration. He also is part of ARL’s Explosive Breaching project, which aims to increase the safety of dismounted infantry by using robots for breaching tasks.

As co-chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s Technical Committee on Telerobotics, he will help steer a research agenda in telerobotics for the society. He will be organizing technical sessions as well as workshops and panels in an effort to facilitate collaborations between academia and industry. Penco also serves as an associate editor of the Robotics and Automation Society’s flagship conferences, such as the International Conference on Robotics and Automation as well as the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

 The IEEE is the world’s largest professional organization representing nearly 500,000 engineers and technologists who work together to foster innovation and global collaboration across various technical fields.