Volkan Patoglu graduated with the B.Sc. degree from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 1999. He received the M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering - Systems in 2000 and 2002, respectively, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a research assistant in Haptix Laboratory at the University of Michigan. His research interests include nonlinear control, automated modeling and physically-based simulation of hybrid dynamical systems with applications to haptic rendering.