The Federal University of Pampa (UNIAMPA) is a young university established in a remote and low income zone of Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil, bordered by Argentina and Uruguay. When Professor Felipe Carpes moved to UNIPAMPA there weren't any facilities for biomechanics research. Starting from nothing but a book donation made possible by Irene Davis (at the time at the University of Delaware), as well as Marco Vaz and the ISB, Professor Carpes has built up his Research Group on Applied Neuromechanics in only five years to become one of the best-equipped laboratories for biomechanics research in South America.
Contact
Federal University of PampaResearch Group on Applied Neuromechanics
Faculty of Health Sciences, Campus Uruguaiana, BR 472, km 592, po box 118, ZIP 97500-970, Brazil
Telephone: (+) 55 55 9917 3084 ext 9977
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: http://porteiras.s.unipampa.edu.br/gnap/
Who’s Who at GNAP-UNIPAMPA?
| Organization | Name | Role |
|---|---|---|
| UNIPAMPA | Felipe Carpes | Professor, Applied Neuromechanics Research Group |
| Emmanuel Souza da Rocha | Graduate Student, Applied Neuromechanics Research Group | |
| Mariane de Medeiros Figueiredo | Undergraduate Student, Applied Neuromechanics Research Group | |
| ISB | Marco Vaz | Professor, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil |
Project History by Felipe Carpes
I have been an ISB member since 2007. While I was a PhD Student, I received am ISB student travel grant that changed my whole academic life. At that time I was the first Brazilian to receive that ISB grant. I was able to travel abroad (for the first time in my life) to spend 2 months in an internship under the supervision of Darren Stefanyshyn at the University of Calgary. It was a fantastic experience. Afterwards we published some papers together and I finished my PhD.
Since 2009 I have been an Associate Professor at Federal University of Pampa (UNIPAMPA) where I supervise undergraduate and graduate students and conduct research in the research group on applied neuromechanics. UNIPAMPA is a young university established in a remote and low income zone of Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil, bordered by Argentina and Uruguay. When I moved to UNIPAMPA there weren't any facilities for biomechanics research there (not even for teaching). So I started from nothing. In the beginning we did not have books to study. Then, Irene Davis made a book donation to ISB and the books were forwarded to my university at the suggestion of Marco Vaz where they have been extremely useful. Books were made available to the students at the university library and still are benefiting around 500 students every year.
The next challenge was to show to my students (lab students) that it is possible to achieve great accomplishments with the support of the IS
B. Some of my students were able to travel abroad (Canada, US, and Spain) with the support of ISB travel grants, which significantly contributed to their de
velopment and also for development of our research group. In 2013 I received a Spanish PhD student in our laboratory with the support of the ISB travel grant. After 5 years working at UNIPAMPA we have now one of the more equipped laboratories for biomechanics research in South America (http://porteiras.s.unipampa.edu.br/gnap/facilidades/), which was made possible by the support of UNIPAMPA and also by science agencies from Brazil that granted our research projects.
Interesting projects we develop:
- Webinar series on exercise and rehabilitation sciences (http://porteiras.s.unipampa.edu.br/gnap/webinar/),
- Master and PhD in biological sciences with emphasis in biochemistry and its interactions with exercise and cognition,
- Master in physical education with emphasis in biomechanics and motor control.
- Biomechanics Olympics Project: educational projects developed during the biomechanics course where students are invited to perform different activities (social, scientific, cognitive and physical activities) that will be part of their grade in the final escore.
- Symposium on Applied Neuromechanics: lectures from the latest symposium are available online for free!
As I know how important the support of ISB is to EDC regions, I am trying to help develop biomechanics in some remote places. In our university (which is far from big cities fromBrazil) we created a webinar series dedicated to promote online classes of biomechanics (focused on research in physical exercise and rehabilitation). In the last 3 years more than 635 people have attended the lectures. We advertise the lectures in our website and in our facebook page. Anyone can join the classes and watch it LIVE online and free. They can also send questions to the speaker. We are currently preparing the schedule of talks for 2015. If you want to help me in this project giving an online class, please send me a message! Classes can be in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
The opportunity to receive many internationally recognized researchers in our laboratory as part of our collaborative projects has been fundamental to help us improve our research skills. And finally, the annual “Symposium on Applied Neuromechanics” we organize every year has been a unique opportunity to share with our South American colleagues the research we develop, as well as to make it possible for people from South America to listen to talks by great scientists in the field. (In the last 5 edition of our symposium we had international invited speakers coming to Brazil, among them: Darren Stefanyshyn, Evangelos Pappas, Maarten Bobbert, Guillaume Millet, João Paulo Villas-Boas, Pedro Figueiredo, Jacques Duysens, Bouwien Smits-Engelsman, David Collins and Roger Enoka).
We are really looking forward to develop networks and help other places to develop biomechanics as we were able to do. We want to receive students from other South American countries to participate in our graduate programs and develop research together with us. Together with Prof Marco Vaz, we have been working on the Executive Board of the Brazilian Society of Biomechanics, helping in the establishment of the Colombian Society of Biomechanics and trying to help people from Chile to establish the Chilean Society of Biomechanics. I am more than happy to have now the opportunity to help others in a similar way ISB helped me in the beginning of my scientific career.
