Growing
up, I always had a natural inclination and fascination towards sports. My life
was ingrained with watching, competing, and reading about sports. Once I became
more serious in training in distance running, I enjoyed reading the latest
running shoe technologies and training plans. During my sophomore year of
college I stumbled upon the book, “The Science of Running: How to find your
limit and train to maximize your performance,” by Steve Magness. The author is
a former professional runner, has coached Olympians, and is considered a public
expert in Exercise Science. His experience serves to provide incredible
commentary on the constant ‘war’ between coaches and scientists over the debate
of optimal training methods. Following the read, I dedicated an Honors College
semester project studying how fatigue hinders optimal gait performance in
runners. My professor helped me get in contact Dr. Cortes who works at the
George Mason SMART Lab for biomechanics and the next semester he invited me to
do research with his PhD student which is very similar to my personal URSP
project.
As
a bioengineering student, my long-term goal is to be able to work at optimizing
gait efficiency among lower limb prosthetic patients. The SMART Lab uses Vicon
Infrared cameras for 240 frames per second video capturing of subjects hooked
up with reflective markers in order to ascertain optimal movements. For
graduate school this Fall at Stevens Institute of Technology, I will be working
at the Movement Control Rehabilitation (MOCORE) Laboratory which
utilizes OptiTrack Motion
Capture Cameras in a similar fashion. This lab offers many biomedical
engineering focused projects including simulation-based exoskeleton
control to rehabilitate gait following neuromuscular dysfunction. According to
my Uncle, Dr. Jeffrey O. Hollinger who has worked in bone tissue engineering
for over four decades, the robotics program at Carnegie Mellon University is
world renown and offers a remarkable research institution for prosthetics
research. After obtaining a Masters of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering at
Stevens Institute of Technology I may consider attending CMU for a PhD in
Mechanical Engineering to further bolster my research knowledge applications in
designing and testing prosthetic devices. The demand for robotic assistance
among amputees, stroke patients, and paraplegics is very high among military
veterans. Working extensively in motion capture research in biomechatronics
would allow me to not only satisfy my study of interest, but also contribute to
the quality of life for millions of amputees.
Weekly
activity varies from week to week. Some weeks we will have three to four test
subjects come in which takes about three hours per subject to prepare, test,
and analyze (see picture). Some weeks I may give a powerpoint presentation on kinesiology to update the students of the ongoing research at the SMART Lab.
For the past couple of weeks, we have been testing out an ultrasound device to
be used in a future study which will give visual data on muscle activity during
walking. I also took time to research various haptic (vibration) feedback
devices for another future study at the lab, comparing the pros and cons of
multiple products and communicating to my mentor the benefits of the Tactor
Development Kit that we ended up purchasing. Even though my URSP project
focuses on gait analysis of asymptomatic patients, I am still spending time
contributing to the lab on their future studies when actual knee osteoarthritis
patients will be tested.
One
thing I learned was to not let the culture of the lab bring down my motivation.
Since a majority of the PhD students working on the study have other
commitments, it is easy to want to put in less effort because after all “Why
should an undergraduate contribute more to a study than a PhD student?” On
second thought, I realize I should always give my best effort regardless of the
attitudes of my teammates. Although more may be expected from PhD students, my
expectation to work hard and contribute the best I can is what I learned to
focus on.
