Neuromechanics of Mobility (Dr. Allen)
Daily life requires navigating diverse and complex demands, such as changing speeds, turning, and stepping over or around obstacles. Unfortunately, over a quarter of community-dwelling adults over the age of 65 and half of older adults with neurological deficits fall annually. A major focus in this research area is understanding how the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems interact to maintain balance while navigating these demands. To identify general principles underlying the control of balance during movement, these studies span the spectrum from motor expertise (e.g., ballet dancers) to motor impairment (e.g., stroke survivors). Through a comprehensive approach combining laboratory-based experiments, real-world monitoring, data science, and computational modeling, this work aims to provide guidance for clinical decision-making and device design to improve mobility in daily life and mitigate the risk of falling.
Orthopaedic Surgery and Imaging (Dr. Banks)
This research area focuses on technologies and methods that support orthopaedic surgery and imaging. Projects include autonomous implant registration, gait analysis, and large animal medical imaging. Related work has also included soft-tissue 3D printing, dynamic x-ray scanning, series elastic actuator research, and surgeon-interactive robotic imaging systems.
Dr. Banks is a former MAE faculty member and former department chair who now holds a courtesy appointment in MAE and leads startup companies in related research areas.
Orthopaedic Biomechanics and Human Movement (Dr. Costello)
This research area focuses on understanding how real-world movement patterns influence joint health across the lifespan. Using osteoarthritis as a primary context, this work examines how daily physical activity and movement behaviors relate to disease onset, progression, and symptom fluctuations.
A central goal is to move beyond isolated laboratory measures to capture the multidimensional and time-varying nature of human movement in everyday life. This includes identifying meaningful patterns of activity and behavior that may contribute to or protect against changes in musculoskeletal and joint health.
Approaches in this area integrate biomechanics, wearable sensors, and data science methods to study movement both in controlled settings and in real-world environments. These tools are used to generate insights that can support more personalized and ecologically valid strategies for maintaining and improving joint health.