Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Robotics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020
  • B.S., Electrical & Computer Engineering, Duke University, 2012
Professional Honors
  • Woodruff Strong Fellow, 2023
  • Woodruff President’s Fellow (2016-2020)
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Accessibility, Movement and Rehabilitation Science (ARMS) Scholar, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016
  • Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society
Professional Affiliations
  • IEEE Member
  • ACM Member

Dr. Molnar's expertise is in electrical and mechatronic systems, with particular experience in robotics, virtual reality, and computer architecture. At Exponent, she applies her multidisciplinary background to provide technical professional services spanning a range of areas from analysis of complex electronic and robotics systems to software review for clients in multiple industries.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Molnar worked as a computer logic designer at IBM, where she designed microarchitecture for high performance servers to accelerate execution of computationally intensive, multithreaded processes. She has also conducted research for Meta's AR/VR Research group on the design and teleoperation of non-anthropomorphic avatars and has characterized serial communication link performance for the Circuits Research Group at Nvidia.

She completed her PhD in Robotics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was an NSF fellow in a joint Georgia Tech/Emory Medical Robotics Traineeship program. Her graduate work focused on improving the controllability of bio-inspired soft robots, and particularly on identifying control schemes that would enable their intuitive teleoperation. She developed novel optical sensors for proprioceptive feedback, prototyped robots with bio-inspired locomotion, and designed a virtual reality environment to capture motion data from users to serve as a basis for designing teleoperation control schemes. Her multidisciplinary background allows her to apply her knowledge of soft robots, sensing, embedded systems, virtual reality, rapid prototyping, user-centered design, neuromechanics, and computer architecture to solve clients' technical challenges.

Dr. Molnar has broad experience with many programming languages, software tools and frameworks, and utilities relevant to interfacing with a variety of hardware ranging from embedded computing circuitry within electronic devices to control systems and interfaces for robotic applications. These include: Python, C, C#, Matlab, ROS, Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL), Unity (VR), Solidworks, Quartus, and practical prototyping skills such as machining, 3D printing, PCB etching, and surface-mount soldering.