National Biomechanics Day 2024

Last week the Steele Lab celebrated National Biomechanics Day (NBD) on April 3, 2024 at the VA Puget Sound. Mia Hoffman, Sasha Portnova, and Katie Landwehr, alongside fellow Biomechanics researchers with the Ingraham Lab, and Center for Limb Loss and MoBility (CLiMB) hosted over 75 students from a local high school.

A group of five people posing for a photo

NBD is a world-wide celebration of Biomechanics in its many forms for high school students and teachers. Steele Lab PhD student Mia Hoffman, and Ingraham Lab PhD student Annika Pfister were recently awarded a $1000 grant from the American Society of Biomechanics and National Biomechanics Day to host an outreach event for high school students focused on disability biomechanics.

Mia and Katie hosted a station on “Switch-Adapted Toys & Accessible Design”

Sasha, Annika, and Zijie hosted a station on “Myodino: Activate your Muscles”

Switch Kit Workshop at Kindering

Mia Hoffman standing in front of a screen giving a presentation on the Switch Kits for digital play. In the foreground, there is a soft pillow and squishmallow DIY adaptive switch. Lab members, Mia Hoffman, Kat Steele, Heather Feldner and Katie Landwehr led a “Switch Kit” Workshop at Kindering in Bothell, WA.

The workshop aimed to teach Speech-Language Pathologists how to use a new system we have designed with the MakeyMakey for inclusive play options in early intervention. The team also got to try their hands at making their own adaptive switches out of pool noodles! Stay tuned for more on this project.

Slide titled "Development of a Switch Kit for Digital Play" by Mia Hoffman from the Steele Lab and IMPACT Collaboratory. A picture is shown of a stuffed animal playing a game on an iPad using the Switch Kit device