Our lab is very happy to announce that Dr. Kat Steele is the winner of the prestigious American Society of Biomechanics Young Investigator Award. This annual award recognizes early achievements by promising young scientists. Kat will present her work during a special awards session at the annual ASB meeting August 2-5, 2016 in Raleigh, North Carolina. She will also be featured in an article in the Journal of Biomechanics. Go Kat!
Sasha Presents at the Northwest Chapter of AAOP
After presenting her work at the national American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists (AAOP) in Orlando, FL, Sasha was invited to present her work locally at the Northwest chapter of AAOP here in Bellevue. Great job sharing about your research, Sasha!
Seattle’s MESA Day (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement)
MESA Day brought high school and middle school students from the Seattle area to North Seattle College for a morning of competitions and STEM activities, put on by volunteers in the community. Gaurav and Michael developed an activity using electromyography (EMG) sensors to teach students about neural control of muscles, how we quantify muscle activity, and how we can use that knowledge to improve quality of life. Small groups selected a “test subject” and hooked up an EMG sensor to a muscle of their choice. They then picked tasks to perform, generated corresponding hypothetical muscle activation curves, and experimentally tested their hypotheses. The attendees were impressive. Students, ages 13-18, surprised our PhD students with their curiosity, knowledge, and ability to generate hypotheses and explain their results. Overall, the students seemed to enjoy the event and we hope that we helped them think about how understanding the mechanisms of the human body can be used to improve lives.
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AWIS Presents Innovations in 3D Printing
Join us at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to learn about innovations and research involving 3D printing. The panelists for this monthly series include our lab director, Kat Steele, along with Duane Storti from the Solheim Additive Manufactoring Lab.
What: The panelists will cover many aspects of 3D printing including: 3D printing material systems and filament, 3D printing design, analysis of 3D scan data, applications of 3D printing in medicine and other fields, and possibilities for the future from innovations in the 3D printing space. In addition to our panelists, there will be a live demonstration of 3D printing technology.
Where: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – Pelton Auditorium 1100 Fairview Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 – Free visitor parking
When: Wednesday – February 17, 2016 – 6:00 PM
This event is possible through the Association for Women in Science. Click here for more details about this even.
BR Shuman, M Goudriaan, L Bar-On, MH Schwartz, K Desloovere, KM Steele (2016) “Repeatability of muscle synergies within and between days for typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy.” Gait & Posture.
Journal article in Gait and Posture:
Filtering parameters impact the results from muscle synergy analyses.
Abstract: Muscle synergies are typically calculated from electromyographic (EMG) signals using nonnegative matrix factorization. Synergies identify weighted groups of muscles that are commonly activated together during a task, such as walking. Synergy analysis has become an emerging tool to evaluate neuromuscular control; however, the repeatability of synergies between trials and days has not been evaluated. The goal of this study was to evaluate the repeatability of synergy complexity and structure in unimpaired individuals and individuals with cerebral palsy (CP). EMG data were collected from eight lower-limb muscles during gait for six typically developing (TD) children and five children with CP on two separate days, over three walking speeds. To evaluate synergy complexity, we calculated the total variance accounted for by one synergy (tVAF1). On a given day, the average range in tVAF1 between gait cycles was 18.2% for TD and 19.1% for CP. The average standard deviation in tVAF1 between gait cycles was 4.9% for TD and 5.0% for CP. Average tVAF1 calculated across gait cycles was not significantly different between days for TD or CP participants. Comparing synergy structure, the average (standard deviation) within day correlation coefficients of synergy weights for two or more synergies were 0.89 (0.15) for TD and 0.88 (0.15) for CP. Between days, the average correlation coefficient of synergy weights for two or more synergies was greater than 0.89 for TD and 0.74 for CP. These results demonstrate that synergy complexity and structure averaged over multiple gait cycles are repeatable between days in both TD and CP groups.