Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR visiting scholars program is a unique experience that fosters expertise and collaborations in biomechanical simulations for rehabilitation research.

2011 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Clark Center at Night. Photo by Justin Lebar licensed through Creative Commons.

Program Description

Through the visiting scholars program, NCSRR seeks to attract energetic and talented scholars from computer science, biomechanics, physical therapy and other fields to become experts in biomechanical simulation and the needs of the rehabilitation community.

Up to four individuals will be chosen to visit the NCSRR at Stanford University for a period of five weeks during the summer of 2019. Each visiting scholar will be reimbursed for travel and living expenses up to $8,000. During their visit, awardees will receive training and mentoring to help them reach their research goals. They will have the opportunity to participate in formal meetings, discussions with OpenSim experts, and brainstorming sessions with their fellow visiting scholars to advance their research and the OpenSim project.

The visiting scholars will be located together at Stanford University’s interdisciplinary research building, the Clark Center, which is centrally located relative to the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering.

The visiting scholars program is aimed at postdoctoral fellows and faculty members, but doctoral students are welcome to apply. Students and scholars who are already studying at an institution in the U.S. on a visa should enquire with their international office before applying to determine if and how they can be reimbursed for their travel.

Apply

There are two steps to applying to the program:

1) Complete an Application Packet, which includes a research proposal, CV, and two letters of support. See the packet for full instructions. Materials should be submitted as a single PDF to opensim@stanford.edu.

2) Complete the short online application form.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: February 15, 2019
WINNERS ANNOUNCED: April, 2019
PROGRAM START DATE: ~June 24, 2019

If you have questions about the program after reviewing the Application Packet and Instructions, please contact opensim@stanford.edu.

2019 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our ninth round of Visiting Scholars:

Antoine Motte dit Falisse

Incorporating computational tools and formulations for predictive simulations in OpenSim

Antoine is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Movement Sciences at KU Leuven (Belgium). He received a B.S. degree in Engineering Science and a M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from UC Louvain (Belgium). He was a NCSRR visiting scholar in 2017 and a visiting student at Carnegie Mellon University for a six-month period in 2017-2018. His doctoral research involves using optimal control methods and musculoskeletal modeling to explore walking control in healthy individuals and children with cerebral palsy. As part of this research, he developed an optimal control framework to generate computationally efficient predictive simulations of movements. His previous research stay as a NCSRR visiting scholar focused on enabling the use of algorithmic differentiation in OpenSim. Antoine also developed a model of muscle spasticity and a method to estimate subject-specific muscle-tendon parameters. He is currently using predictive simulations to investigate how spasticity and muscle-tendon properties affect walking in children with cerebral palsy.

Brett Steineman

Joint loading after total ankle replacement through activities of daily living

Brett received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Trine University in Angola, IN (2014) and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO (2018). As an undergraduate student, Brett also spent time as a product development engineering co-op at Zimmer-Biomet, Inc. in Warsaw, Indiana developing surgical instruments and implants for partial knee replacements, total knee replacements, and knee-specific limb salvage procedures. His doctoral research focused on soft tissue mechanics and improving meniscal root repairs. The goal of his research was to better understand root tears of the anterior meniscal insertions and to investigate mechanistic causes of insufficient meniscal root repairs. Brett is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, NY with a focus in foot & ankle biomechanics. His current research combines cadaveric experimentation and computational modeling to determine the important factors affecting implant performance in total ankle arthroplasty.

Prasanna Sritharan

Quantifying muscular coordination in walking with femoroacetabular impingement

Prasanna is a post-doctoral researcher at the La Trobe Sports and Exercise Medicine Research Centre as well as the Digital Human group at the Data61 division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 2016, and received a BEng (Mechatronics) and a BCompSci, also from the University of Melbourne in 2005. Prasanna works closely with clinical researchers, exercise physiologists and sports scientists on a diverse range of projects utilising musculoskeletal modelling, simulation and machine learning to advance understanding of acute and chronic conditions related to sports, exercise and occupational health. Prasanna’s current research in biomechanical simulation of athletes with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome is inspired in part by his other job – part-time stay-at-home dad to a sprightly two-year-old born with developmental bilateral dysplasia of the hip, now fully resolved.

Benjamin Wheatley

Optimizing simulated surgical correction of lower limb rotational morphology

Ben is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA). He received a BS in Engineering from Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO). His PhD work focused on investigating the link between intramuscular pressure and force in skeletal muscle with finite element analysis. At Bucknell, his Mechanics and Modeling of Orthopeadic Tissues laboratory uses computational methods such as finite element analysis and musculoskeletal modeling to investigate musculoskeletal function from the sub-tissue to whole body scale. A major effort is a collaborative project with Geisinger Health Systems (Danville, PA) to investigate the effect of lower limb rotational profiles and severe knee malformations on anterior knee contact mechanics. The goal of this work is to improve patient-specific surgical planning and screening in the pediatric population.

2018 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our eighth round of Visiting Scholars:

Michael Asmussen

Ankle stability - Uncovering the neural and mechanical mechanisms of its control

Michael received his Honours Bachelor of Kinesiology and MSc (Kinesiology) from Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Canada), where he studied the underlying mechanisms contributing to movement problems in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. During his time at Lakehead University, he was also a 4-time Academic All-Canadian. Michael received his PhD in Kinesiology (2015) from McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada), where he studied the sensorimotor cortical control of finger and upper arm movements. Michael is currently an AIHS and NSERC postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Kinesiology’s Human Performance Lab at the University of Calgary (Calgary, Canada). Michael’s postdoctoral work focusses on studying the neuromuscular control of ankle joint stability during static and dynamic tasks as well as under fatiguing conditions.

Simon M. Danner

Spinal neural mechanisms of sensorimotor integration during locomotion

Simon is a Research Instructor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. He received a Bachelor (2008) and a Master degree (2010) in Computer Science, a Master degree in Computer Science Management (2011) and a PhD in Engineering Sciences (2013) from the Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. In his previous research at the Medical University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Technology, Dr. Danner used spinal cord stimulation to investigate the human spinal locomotor circuits and studied its application to alleviate various sequelae of traumatic spinal cord injury. His main research interest is the computational modeling of the spinal neural networks that control locomotion. Currently, he is using neural network and biomechanical models to study how sensory signals interact with the spinal circuitry during locomotion in animals and humans, both, in the intact nervous system an after various sensorimotor disorders.

Suzanne Cox

An animal model for exoskeleton assistive rehabilitation: Leveraging data-rich computational simulation

Zanne earned a B.S. in physics (UNH) and B.A. in philosophy (UNH) and a BFA in sculpture (Mass College of Art and Design), a M.A. in philosophy (Brown University), and a M.S. in mechanical engineering (UMass) before completing her Ph.D in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Massachusetts. Her work explores how organisms tune the elements of elastic systems to overcome the limitations of muscles. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the Muscle Function and Locomotion lab at the Pennsylvania State University where she has been performing growth studies to explore the plasticity of the musculoskeletal system and developing an animal model to study neuromechanical plasticity of muscle-tendon dynamics at the biological-robotic interface through the integration of in-vivo and computational techniques.

Jayishni Maharaj

Development and validation of a multi-segment foot model to examine the dynamics of the plantar aponeurosis during locomotion

Jayishni Maharaj is a Research Fellow in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. As a Podiatrist, her overarching research interests lie in investigating the mechanical requirements of structures in the foot to better understand mechanisms underpinning musculoskeletal injury and rehabilitation. She received her PhD in 2018 from UQ, where she studied the function of the subtalar joint and tibialis posterior muscle during human locomotion. During her dissertation, she constructed a multi-segment musculoskeletal foot model to measure the intrinsic function of the foot, and combined it with intramuscular EMG and in-vivo ultrasound imaging. Since commencing as a post-doctoral research fellow, Jayishni’s research has extended to incorporating biplanar videoradiography to provide further insights into the complex articulations in the foot during walking and running.

Lance Rane

Optimising rehabilitation strategies through reinforcement learning and biomechanical simulation

Lance is a medical doctor who trained at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. He holds an intercalated degree in Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. Having worked for several years in clinical medicine in the UK and New Zealand he went on to perform research in the department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, applying neuromuscular electrical stimulators to achieve selective muscle activation for joint unloading. He is currently pursuing a PhD in the same department, working on neuromuscular prediction and control in biomechanical simulation. Lance uses the tools of musculoskeletal modelling and reinforcement learning to extract motor controllers from motion data, and optimise them. A major goal of this work is the development of subject-specific neurorehabilitation tools that bridge the gap between computational and clinical environments.

2017 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our seventh round of Visiting Scholars:

Antoine Motte dit Falisse

Integration of automatic differentiation in OpenSim to solve musculoskeletal optimal control problems

Antoine is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Kinesiology at KU Leuven (Belgium). He received a B.S. degree in Engineering Science and a M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from UC Louvain (Belgium). His doctoral research involves using musculoskeletal modeling and dynamic simulations to explore walking control in children with cerebral palsy. As part of this research, he has been working on the development of a method to estimate subject-specific Hill model muscle-tendon parameters and on modeling muscle spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. Currently, he is working on the integration of numerical tools in OpenSim with the aim of performing computationally efficient predictive simulations of walking. These numerical tools include direct collocation and automatic differentiation methods. From September 2017, he will be a visiting student for a six-month period in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

Adrian Lai

Prediction of motor unit recruitment patterns and force sharing in the ankle plantarflexors during cycling using a two-element Hill-type muscle model and a direct collocation approach

Adrian received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 2016, and received a B.S. (Mechatronics) and a M.S. (Biomedical Eng.) from the University of New South Wales in 2012. His doctoral research investigated the behavioural and energetic interactions between the muscle fibres and tendons in the human lower limb muscles across a wide array of locomotion modes and speeds using ultrasound techniques and muscle-driven simulations. Currently, Adrian is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology at the Simon Fraser University. His current research, in partnership with the Concord Field Station at Harvard University, focuses on understanding the importance of motor recruitment and muscle fibre types on muscle-driven simulations of cycling using advanced Hill-type muscle models.

ALESSANDRO NAVACCHIA

Development of an interface between OpenSim and FEBio to facilitate multi-scale musculoskeletal simulations

Alessandro received his Bachelors (2010) and Masters (2013) degrees in Automation Engineering at the University of Bologna (Italy). He went on and earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 from the University of Denver. The main focus of his doctoral research was multi-scale musculoskeletal modeling of the lower limb. He contributed to the development of a finite element musculoskeletal model that includes a 6-degree-of-freedom specimen-specific deformable knee model, which can be used to investigate the interaction between the neuromuscular system and the joint. Alessandro is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Orthopaedic Biomechanics at the University of Denver where he develops finite element simulations and mechanical tests to inform the design process of total knee replacement components. He is also interested in computationally efficient control algorithms to estimate muscle forces.

Gil Serrancoli

Integration of automatic differentiation in OpenSim to solve musculoskeletal optimal control problems

Gil received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia in 2015. He did a six-month PhD stay at the University of Florida (2012-2013). He worked in optimization and synergy approaches for studying muscle redundancy during walking. In 2015 and 2016 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven developing predictive simulations based on direct collocation to estimate foot-ground and human-exoskeleton contact parameters and predict the collaborative movement of a subject with an exoskeleton. In September 2016 he got a position at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Technical University of Catalonia as Assistant Professor. He continues his research in modeling focused on integrating methods to obtain more accurate derivatives (based on automatic differentiation) which will improve the optimization convergence.

2016 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our sixth round of Visiting Scholars:

Xiao Hu

Contribution of Muscle Function in Gait to the Selective Muscle Degeneration in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Xiao received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University in 2012. His doctoral research examined the task-dependent regulation of arm mechanics using a combination of musculoskeletal modeling and simulation as well as experimental approaches. Currently, he is a Research Associate at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia. He is integrating dynamic musculoskeletal simulation, finite-element simulation, and magnetic resonance imaging to predict the impact of various activities on the progression of muscle degeneration in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), thereby providing scientific guidelines for DMD care and exercise management. He is also interested developing finite-element models of muscles to optimize muscle regeneration for repairing volumetric muscle loss injuries.

Brad Humphreys

Implicit Formulation of Dynamics for Predictive Simulation

Brad received a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1998; he is completing a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cleveland State University. He worked for several years in the aerospace industry in aircraft design and flight test. His background in controls, instrumentation, and dynamics took him to ZIN Technologies where he supports the development of spaceflight hardware at NASA Glenn Research Center. Brad's experience in modeling and simulation led to his involvement with Cleveland Clinic's Center for Space Medicine and then as a member of NASA's Digital Astronaut Project. He has developed a predictive simulation of arm motion using direct collocation methods in OpenSim. He is interested in an implicit formulation of dynamics as those solution methods also utilize/produce mathematical quantities that can be directly used in predictive modeling with direct collocation optimization.

Colin Smith

Identification of Altered Neuromuscular Coordination Patterns for Restoration of Healthy Cartilage Contact in ACL Deficient Knees during Walking

Colin is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received a B.S. degree from Clemson University (2011) and an M.S. from UW-Madison (2016). His research investigates the influence of neuromuscular coordination and passive joint properties on knee mechanics during locomotion, with a focus on mitigating post-traumatic osteoarthritis in ACL deficient and reconstructed patients. In 2015, Colin was a visiting Whitaker International Scholar at KU Leuven. He has earned Young Investigator Awards at the CMBBE and ISCSB conferences for his probabilistic musculoskeletal simulation research using a multibody knee model to predict cartilage contact pressures during walking.

Ju Zhang

Patient-specific OpenSim Model Generation Using MAP Client

Ju received his Ph.D. from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) at the University of Auckland in 2013. During his doctoral work, Ju developed automated image processing and meshing methods to create statistical models of femur morphology. As a Research Fellow at the ABI, Ju became one of the founding developers of the Musculoskeletal Atlas Project (MAP) which aims to bridge the gap between clinical data, rigid-body models, and continuum models for musculoskeletal research. His current research involves using statistical shape models for orthopaedic implant design and fusing multi-modal clinical data for automatic musculoskeletal model generation.

2015 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our fifth round of Visiting Scholars:

Frank (Clay) Anderson

Simulating Gait Using Feedback and Stiffness Control

Clay earned a bachelors degree in Physics in 1987 from Johns Hopkins University. He went on to earn a masters in Kinesiology in 1992 and a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering in 1999, both from the University of Texas at Austin. His doctoral research focused on generating a three-dimensional muscle-actuated simulation of human gait using optimal control theory. In 2000, he joined the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab at Stanford University where he continued to focus on the development of novel algorithms for generating forward dynamic simulations of movement and on the development of analyses for quantifying muscle function. Dr. Anderson was one of the founding architects of OpenSim. He currently teaches physics at the Kinkaid School. His interests include multibody dynamics, control theory, muscle function, and software engineering.

Dimitra Blana

Development of new glenohumeral joint models for the study of shoulder stability

Dimitra is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, Keele University, UK. She received her MSc and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. Her doctoral work focused on using musculoskeletal modeling to develop devices that restore arm movement in people with tetraplegia. Since moving to the UK, Dimitra has continued developing models and applying them to stroke and spinal cord injury, and in the design of upper limb prosthetics. She is interested in expanding the use of upper limb modeling for rehabilitation research, and in the clinical practice.

Thomas Geijtenbeek

A Neuromuscular Controller for Predictive Simulations of Pathological Gait

Thomas received his PhD in 2013 at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University. In his research, he used musculoskeletal simulation and neuromuscular control to generate realistic and responsive character animations. Before his PhD, he was employed as lead software developer and designer of Motek Medical, a company that specializes in rehabilitation technology and virtual reality. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering of Delft University of Technology, while maintaining a part-time position as senior software consultant at Motek Medical. His current research interests include neuromuscular control, artificial intelligence, and predictive simulations of human movement.

Ricardo Matias

Scapulothoracic muscle contributions to scapula winging control

Ricardo received his B.S. (Honors) degree in Physiotherapy from the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (PIS), and earned his Ph.D in Human Kinetics and Postdoc in Machine Learning in Biomechanics from the University of Lisbon (UL). Ricardo is currently a researcher at the Neuromechanics of Human Movement Research Group of the UL and has worked in the Physiotherapy Department of the School of Health Care-PIS since 2002. His research merges three-dimensional shoulder musculoskeletal modeling and advanced statistical pattern recognition techniques to help unveil the interactions of complex skeletal and muscle dynamics that are involved in producing healthy and pathological shoulder movements.

2014 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our fourth round of Visiting Scholars:

James Buffi

Muscle and Ligament Contributions to Elbow Varus Torque during Baseball Pitching

James received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame in 2008 and completed his PhD in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University in 2014. His doctoral research focused on developing a musculoskeletal modeling and simulation framework for the baseball pitching motion. James is interested in understanding the mechanisms that cause elbow injuries in baseball pitchers and designing targeted interventions to help prevent these injuries.

Jason Moore

Identification of closed-loop human locomotion control with perturbed walking and running data

Jason received his Ph.D. (2012) and M.S. (2007) degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Davis. His doctoral work spanned a collaborative project involving the theory of bicycle dynamics, control, and handling with experimental validation. During 2008-09 he was a visiting Fulbright scholar to the Netherlands and worked at Delft University of Technology. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Cleveland State University working on the identification of human control during gait and its applications to power prostheses. His research interests include topics in man-machine interaction, manual control theory, multibody dynamics, human biomechanics, human power utilization, system identification, open science, and computer programming for scientists.

2014 Outstanding Researcher Award Winners

Wouter Aerts, KU Leuven
Development of a contact model for the simulation of the stump-socket interface pressure for transtibial amputees

Hossein Mokhtarzadeh, The University of Melbourne
Development of a rehabilitation system using portable, low-cost game technologies including the Microsoft Kinect, Wii balance board and OpenSim

2014 Travel Award Winners

Ameet Aiyangar, EMPA
Incorporating Facet Joints, Intra-Abdominal Pressure and Six-Degree-Of-Freedom Joint Kinematics into an Existing Lumbar Spine Model

Mohammad Sharif Shourijeh, University of Ottawa
Muscle-Synergy-Assisted Musculoskeletal Simulations

Mohammad Atarod Pilambaraei, University of Calgary
A Subject-Specific Musculoskeletal Model to Predict Knee Joint Contact Loads and Muscle Forces in ACL-Deficient and ACL-Reconstructed Patients

Brooke Slavens, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Upper Extremity Joint Dynamics and Muscle Forces During Pediatric Wheelchair Mobility

Michael Hardisty, University of California, Davis
The Biomechanics of Malalignment of the Hind Foot Bones in Children with Cerbral Palsy

Wietse Van Dijk, Delft University of Technology
Simultaneous estimation of kinematics, kinetics and muscular dynamics from motion and force recordings

David Walker, University of Florida
Patient-Specific Computational Modeling to Optimize Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty

Daniel Lopes, INESC-ID Lisboa
Musculoskeletal simulations with contact geometries represented by smooth convex surfaces: applications in foot-ground contact and joint load estimation

John Olthoff, Cornell University
Development of mouse hind limb and bird neck musculoskeletal models for a comparative study of neuromechanical control

Konstantinos Dermitzakis, University of Zurich
Modeling the frictional interaction of the tendon-sheath system in OpenSim

2013 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our third round of Visiting Scholars:

Luca Modenese

Articular loading in hip osteoarthritis development

Luca received a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Padua in 2008 and completed his PhD at Imperial College London in 2013. His doctoral research focused on the development of numerical models for the estimation of joint contact forces occurring during daily living activities. He is currently a Research Fellow at Griffith University, where his main research interests are the generation of subject specific musculoskeletal models from medical images and the estimation of personalized hip articular loading in subjects affected by hip osteoarthritis.

Massimo Sartori

Electromyography driven forward dynamic simulation of human locomotion

Massimo received his master degree in Computer Engineering and his PhD degree in Information Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy in 2007 and 2011 respectively. During his PhD he was a visiting student at the School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, University of Western Australia and at the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory, Stanford University. Since 2011 he is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Department of Neurorehabilitation Engineering, University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany. Dr Sartori’s research interests include the development of methods for bridging between the neural and the functional understanding of human movement in vivo, and the translation of these to the development of advanced neurorehabilitation technologies.

2012 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce our second round of Visiting Scholars:

Katrina Easton

Development and validation of a rabbit hindlimb musculoskeletal model for rehabilitation research: application to the study of tendinopathy

Katrina received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University. Her PhD research focused on using the finite element method to study the effect of variations in bone geometry on the contact stress distribution patterns in the metacarpophalangeal joint of Thoroughbred racehorses. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Western Australia studying injury and repair in the Achilles tendon.

Dominic Farris

Modeling the effects of wearing spring-loaded ankle exoskeletons on lower-limb muscle function during two-legged hopping

Dominic is a Research Fellow in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Bath (UK) where his research focussed on in vivo measurements of human Achilles tendon mechanics using ultrasound imaging-based techniques. Since 2010 he has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at NC State University. There, as part of the Human PoWeR Lab, his research has extended to studying the mechanics and energetics of healthy, pathological (e.g. post-stroke) and robotically assisted human gait. Combining ultrasound imaging, gait analysis and metabolic measurements, his research has targeted better understanding the links between the mechanical requirements and metabolic demands of these different gaits, from the muscular level through to whole body mechanics.

John Rogers

Running with an Active Transtibial Prosthesis

John Rogers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at West Point, the United States Military Academy. He teaches mechatronic design, computer graphics, programming, and dynamics. His research interests are the design of unmanned systems, modeling of dynamic systems, and the biomechanics of running. Dr. Rogers earned the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2003. Prior to joining West Point, he built and tested underwater systems, analyzed structures, and designed industrial electro-hydraulic systems. He is a registered professional engineer.

Bahar Sharafi

The impact of abnormal coactivation on locomotor stability post stroke

Bahar Sharafi is a post doctoral fellow at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University, The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She received her PhD from The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia in 2011, where she developed a finite element micromechanical modeling framework for skeletal muscle and studied the effect of fiber-level microstructure on muscle function. Subsequently she joined the Neuro-mechanics of Impaired Locomotion Laboratory at the Sensory Motor Performance Program. Bahar is currently investigating the effect of abnormal motor templates on dynamic stability and balance recovery following stroke.

2011 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

The NCSRR is pleased to announce the inaugural Visiting Scholars:

Andrew Anderson

Coupling Patient-Specific Finite Element Analysis with Musculoskeletal Modeling to study Acetabular Dysplasia and Femoroacetabuluar Impingement

Dr. Anderson received his Bachelor's of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Bioengineering from the University of Utah. He completed a short postdoctoral fellowship in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at the University of Utah prior to promotion to Research Assistant Professor in December, 2007. Dr Anderson also holds academic appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering and Physical Therapy. His research interests include computational modeling (finite element analysis, musculoskeletal modeling), image analysis (CT and fluoroscopy), and motion analysis. Dr. Anderson’s primary focus is in disorders of the young adult hip, including hip dysplasia and femoroacetabular impingement.

Marjolein van der Krogt

Personalizing musculoskeletal models by simulation of physical exam data

Marjolein van der Krogt is post-doc researcher at the Dept. of Rehabilitation Medicine of the VU University Medical Center and at the Dept. of Biomechanical Engineering of the University of Twente, The Netherlands. During her masters she received a Gerrit Jan van Ingen Schenau Promising Young Scientist Award to perform an internship at the Locomotion Lab of the University of Colorado. In 2009 she received her PhD in Rehabilitation Medicine at the VU University Medical Center. In her PhD research she used both musculoskeletal modeling and dynamic walking techniques to study underlying causes of gait deviations in cerebral palsy. After her PhD, she performed a postdoctoral fellowship at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare and Stanford University, funded by a Ter Meulen Fund stipendium. Her current research focuses on (clinical implementation of) musculoskeletal simulation in rehabilitation and orthopedics.

Yao Li

Neuromuscular Control of Mechatronic Prosthetic Limbs: from Motoneuron to Movement

Yao Li received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China in 2002 and Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering, from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2010. Since then, he has been working as a research associate at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is mainly interested in the application of control theory and modeling of complex systems to the understanding and treatment of human sensorimotor disorders. He has developed a nonlinear optimal control model to provide insights into stability of sway in standing humans, a common research paradigm used to characterize various disorders of balance and senility.

Glen Lichtwark

Simulating the effect of muscle contracture on walking ability in young adults with cerebral palsy

Glen Lichtwark is a Research Fellow in the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland. He was awarded his PhD in 2005 from University College London (UK), where he studied the influence of muscle and tendon elasticity on power output and energetics of muscle. He has subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Veterinary College (2005), Imperial College (2006) and Griffith University (2007-2009) in the areas of biomechanics and muscle physiology. Dr Lichtwark is examining the normal structure and function of human muscles and comparing this to different populations where movement is restricted for different reasons (e.g. cerebral palsy, elderly populations). He is using innovative ultrasound techniques to examine muscle structure as well as how the muscles change length as they contract during different tasks (e.g. walking).

Justin Seipel

Reduced Whole-Body Dynamics in OpenSim

Dr. Justin Seipel received his PhD from Princeton University in 2006. There he studied the stability of legged locomotion, utilizing mathematical and simulation-based models. From 2006-2009 Dr. Seipel was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied the neuromechanical control of legged locomotion of insects and its applications to bioinspired robots. Dr. Seipel is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University.

Visiting Scholars

Program Description

Apply

2019 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Antoine Motte dit Falisse

Brett Steineman

Prasanna Sritharan

Benjamin Wheatley

2018 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Michael Asmussen

Simon M. Danner

Suzanne Cox

Jayishni Maharaj

Lance Rane

2017 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Antoine Motte dit Falisse

Adrian Lai

ALESSANDRO NAVACCHIA

Gil Serrancoli

2016 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Xiao Hu

Brad Humphreys

Colin Smith

Ju Zhang

2015 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Frank (Clay) Anderson

Dimitra Blana

Thomas Geijtenbeek

Ricardo Matias

2014 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

James Buffi

Jason Moore

2014 Outstanding Researcher Award Winners

2014 Travel Award Winners

2013 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Luca Modenese

Massimo Sartori

2012 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Katrina Easton

Dominic Farris

John Rogers

Bahar Sharafi

2011 NCSRR Visiting Scholars

Andrew Anderson

Marjolein van der Krogt

Yao Li

Glen Lichtwark

Justin Seipel

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