University of Michigan School of Information

Sile O’Modhrain elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering

Sile is brightly illuminated amid a large dark studio space, standing at a podium and interacting with a refreshable braille display. A large projection screen behind her shows green braille dots as a representation of the screen state, and red dots for where the screen is being touched. The green braille dots show a file name, blocky audio waveform, playhead position and timecodes in seconds.

Thursday, 09/24/2026

By Noor Hindi

University of Michigan School of Information professor Sile O’Modhrain has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is among 75 people elected to the Academy’s 2026 class and will be formally admitted at a ceremony in London on Oct. 19.

The Royal Academy of Engineering is the United Kingdom's national academy for engineering and technology. Its more than 1,700 Fellows include researchers, business leaders and policymakers whose work has advanced engineering that benefits society.

“It is a real honor and an exciting opportunity to join a community of people focused on using engineering to better the lives of everyone and working to use technology to serve society,” O’Modhrain says.

O’Modhrain is a professor of information at UMSI and a professor of music at U-M’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Her research explores how sound and touch can make digital information more accessible. She has helped develop a refreshable braille display that enables blind users to access text and graphics through touch.

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Learn more about O’Modhrain’s research and projects by visiting her UMSI faculty profile.