NCUR 2024
Several of our lab’s undergrads were selected to present their research at this year’s National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) Symposium. The event was in sunny southern California, and it looks like they had a great time!
National Biomechanics Day 2024
We once again partnered with the NC Math and Science Education Network (MSEN) to host our Biomechanics Day Event as part of their annual MSEN Day. This year, unlike last year, the event was held on Centennial Campus which meant that we could bring students to the labs in addition to our regular expo-type activities.
Gabby showed students how we can we use a force plateย to determine jump forceย and hang time
Almost as high as Michael Jordan!
Sandra used our hand-crank tensile tester to show students how different material properties need different amounts of force to break
Jenn and Nooshin had a hands-on activity to teach students about how material properties are a factor when developing hydrogels
Amy and Jingjie showed students an arm model that we use in some of our classes
And also demonstrated how muscle moment arms can make you seem very strong (or very weak!)
Derek’s group had a VR food fight to show how we can capture human movement and use it in biomechanics research
And Kristen showed off a powered exoskeleton that can be controlled with an app!
Until next year!
Annual BME Retreat
2024 marked the 20th anniversary of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering! We celebrated with a proper retreat at the Durham convention center.
Many of the undergrads had just returned from NCUR that morning, so they did not present at the retreat. But Claire presented a poster relating to her work with Kyla on the BPBI project.
Also there were huge standup letters that made for a great photo op!
Jason becomes Dr. Cox!
Jason has defended last week and (of course) passed, making him Dr. Jason Cox! He already has a job lined up with Align Technology, the company behind Invisalign, and will be starting almost right away. He will very much be missed in the lab, but we wish him the best of luck in his new job and in everything else.ย ย
Pumpkin Carving: 2023 Edition
We recently continued our annual OML tradition of getting together to carve pumpkins! The weather was not on our side, but luckily we found some space inside and made sure to clean up after ourselves.ย
Happy Halloween!ย
Abrams Scholars
This semester we have a whopping SIX Abrams Scholar in the lab!ย
Brooke, Josh, Katie, Claire, and Brian will all be helping with the BPBI project. Brooke, Josh, and Katie will be looking at the effect of BPBI on bone metabolism and muscle composition. Claire will be looking at BPBI’s effect on bone microstructure, and Brian will be looking at its effect on rotator cuff muscle architecture specifically.
Carter will be working with Sandra on the bone-on-chip project. His project is titled ‘Development of a bone-on-chip platform to examine effects of post-stroke inflammation on bone-vascular interactions’
We’re so proud of all of you!
2023 Summer OUR Symposium
OML was again well-represented at the summer OUR symposium with five posters!! We had Brian, Carter, Josh, Katie, Nic and all present the projects that they’ve been working on over the summer, and all did a phenomenal job.
(click photo to enlarge)
Research Experience for Teachers
This summer, OML participated in NC State’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program. This was our first time having teachers in our lab, and we loved it! We had two science teachers — a high school science teacher and a teacher in training — join our lab for 5 weeks. They helped out with data analysis for both our BPBI project and our Bone on Chip project.
Their work culminated in a poster session on campus, and ultimately they will each write a lesson plan that will be shared on RTNN’s RET Program page.
Yay Science!
A new outreach project with Athens Drive’s Spinal Muscle Atrophy Camp
This year we started up a new partnership, leading a session at a camp focused on spinal muscle atrophy (SMA) being held for incoming freshmen at Athens Drive High School. We designed an activity that connected our lab’s biomechanics focus to SMA by looking at scoliosis, and how variations in spinal muscle strength can affect curvature. We used a pool noodle as a model of the spine and inserted dowel rods that students could connect exercise bands (‘muscles’) to. We loved coming up with a new activity, and we hope the kids had fun too!
To start, we asked them what ‘biomechanics’ is and generated a word cloud from their responses. We love how many of them used the word ‘help’ in their explanation!
A snippet of the worksheet that Jason created to guide the activity
2023 Spring UR Symposium (+ Jacque wins an Award!)
Our undergraduates have been very busy. Several of them travelled to Wisconsin for NCUR, presented at the NC State Undergraduate Research Symposium, and presented a talk at our year-end Abrams seminar, all in less than 2 weeks!
At the Undergraduate Research Symposium, we had:
- Kathryn: Characterization of Porous, Mineralized Collagen-Chitosan Scaffolds for use in a Bone-On Chip Platform (working with Sandra)
- Brooke: Effects of Brachial Plexus Birth Injury on Composition of Biceps, Supraspinatus, & Subscapularis Muscles (working with Kyla)
- Rose: Verifying Quality of Joint Reaction Forces Obtained from Musculoskeletal Models for Contact Finite Element Analysis of the Rat Shoulder Following BPBI (working with Jason)
- Amanda: Characterizing Architecture of a Biomimetic Bone Scaffold (working with Sandra)
- Katie: Gait Impairment in a Rat Model of Brachial Plexus Birth Injury (working with Kyla)
- Steven: Understanding Paw Preference Associated with Brachial Plexus Birth Injury (working with Kyla)
Amanda, Kathryn, Katie, and Brooke also presented their research at the Abrams Scholars Final Presentations.
In addition to the four above, Carter and Deeqa also presented at the Abrams final presentations:
- Carter: Characterization of a 3D biomimetic bone scaffold for in vitro examination of bone microenvironments (working with Sandra)
- Deeqa: Finite Element Analysis of Trabecular Bone Microstructure with Passive Joint Loads Following Brachial Plexus Birth Injury (working with Jason)
We’re also very proud to share that Jacque won the Michael Dickey Outstanding Research Mentor Award, which is presented annually at the Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated excellence in mentoring and supporting undergraduate researchers. Winners of this award show a commitment to serving as a guide for undergraduate students as they move from directed to more independent work, creating opportunities for them to develop advanced technical and soft skills, encouraging then to share their research publicly, supporting underrepresented students, and offering academic and career advice for their mentees. Jacque was nominated by our lab’s undergrads for everything that she does for them and for the lab.
