September 2019

ISB Now - September 2019

ISB News

President's Blog - Toni Arndt

Students Corner - Megan Smidebush

Upcoming Student Grants

ISB/ASB 2019 Report - Walter Herzog

2019 ISB Award Winners

Congress Travel Grant Reports 

Outside ISB and Technical Group News

Footwear Biomechanics Group

3D - Analysis of Human Movement Group

Motor Control Working Group

Comparative Neuromuscular Biomechanics Seed Group

Internatioanl Foot and Ankle Biomechanics Meeting 2020

Presidents Blog - September 2019

Dear ISB Community,

It is an honour to have been elected as ISB President and to be given the opportunity to reach out to the society’s membership with this blog. Thank you all for putting your trust in me! I will do my utmost to help continue the success of ISB and am really looking forward to the next two years.

I would like to start off with thanking the organising committee of the ISB Congress in Calgary from the 31 July – 4 August for putting on a fantastic, stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable event. A special mention must be made of the smooth manner in which 2200 delegates were taken care of and accommodated in the presentation rooms and when this was difficult were given the option of live screening of the presentations. This was a clear success. It was especially enjoyable when the audience in the live screening rooms started applauding the streamed presenters! I am sure that many of you were there and agree. The breadth of topics covered by the excellent keynote lecturers and the scientific sessions once again highlighted the scope that ISB represents. So, once again thank you Walter Herzog, Sandro Nigg, Brent Edwards and the many, many people that helped you for the fantastic meeting.

As a member of the organising group for the next ISB Congress in Stockholm 2021, I realise that the previous events are a hard act to follow, but this provides a great stimulus to ensure that Stockholm will also become a huge success. We are looking forward to welcoming you to our beautiful city in a couple of years time!

As president there are a number of issues I am looking forward to working with together with the strong Council you have elected. A fundamental aim is to improve and update the steering documents of the ISB Council to ensure they ensure adaptation to present changes in the world and reflect the purposes of the ISB. It is also of importance that we maintain the international strength of the society and for this purpose a South American and an Asian representative have been appointed to Council to facilitate processes for strengthening biomechanics in these continents.

With the acceptance of the Swedish Society of Biomechanics at the Annual General Meeting in Calgary, the ISB now has 22 affiliated societies, nearly all of which represent national societies. More national societies are strongly encouraged to consider applying for affiliated status, for which ISB provides many benefits. As a final, and highly prioritised area, it is important that the spirit of the Advancing Women in Biomechanics event organised in Calgary be strengthened and continued so that we can all be proud of being members of an inclusive, equal and fair society.

As much as I am proud to be your new president, I am sure I can speak for all of us in saying I am even more proud to be part of the exciting activity provided by the ISB and the bright future the society has!

Cheers,

Toni

Students Corner - Megan Smidebush (ISB Student Representative)

Overview

It was great to get to meet many of you at ASB/ISB this past July! What a great experience that was for all who were able to attend. Melissa Boswell has done more than a fantastic job with being the Student Representative for the past two years! It will be hard to try and follow in her shoes.

For those who do not know me, my name is Megan Smidebush and I am your new Student Representative. I am very excited to help lead, guide, and serve all of the students who are members of ISB. It is with great pleasure that I am able to be a lesion between the students and the faculty, who were once just like all of us. For those who were at ASB/ISB, you know that it was a great success! The mentoring roundtables, student hike, and student night out went extremely well! 

Get ready for ISB 2021 in Stockholm!

Upcoming Events

October 1^st- 3^rd, 2019: 6^th International Patellofemoral Research Retreat, Milwaukee (USA)

October 16^th-19^th, 2019: Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia (USA)

November 1^st-3^rd, 2019: 19^th Asian- Pacific Conference on Biomechanics, Taipei (Taiwan)

November 3^rd-8^th, 2019: International Conference on Intelligent Robots & Systems, Macau (China)

April 5^th-8^th, 2020: International Foot and Ankle Biomechanics Meeting, Sau Paulo (Brazil)

July 11th-14th. 2020: International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology (Nagoya, Japan)

Information

For any and all graduate positions and employment, remember to stay up to date with Biomch-L.

Here is the link:  https://biomch-l.isbweb.org/forums/5-Jobs-and-Positions

Biomechanics on our Minds (BOOM) Podcast

• Episode 19: Researching Strong as Steele (feat. Julie Steele)
• Episode 18: Navigating Scientific Conferences
• Episode 17: Tackling Gray Area Challenges (feat. May Liu)

Social Media

Be sure to keep up to date with ISB by liking our ISB Facebook Page, joining the Student Members Facebook Page, and following ISB on Twitter. Please reach out to me with any comments, questions, suggestions, or just to talk. You can contact me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Megan Smidebush is the ISB Student Representative (2019-2021).

Megan is a PhD student at Mississippi State University.

Upcoming Student Grants

Available Student Grants

The following grants are accepting applications for 2019-2020 deadlines:

1. Matching Dissertation Grant (due Dec 16, 2019). This program is applicable to those who are doctoral candidates and are seeking assistance with costs of their dissertation research
2. The International Travel Grant program (ITG) (due Dec 16, 2019 & May 29^th 2020). In order to allow student members to travel abroad to experience science in other countries and cultures, and to build up international collaborations we will offer several grants of up to $US2500 for travel related to biomechanics research.
3. Technical Group Meeting Travel Grant (due Feb 28, 2020). This grant is offered to the student members of the ISB attending the affiliated Technical Group meetings. Applications are being accepted in 2020 for the travel to the 3-D Analysis of Human Movement (3DAHM) July 12-15, 2020 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.
4. The International Affiliate Development Grant program (due Dec 16^th, 2019) Open to student biomechanists from low income or restricted currency countries to enable them to spend time in an approved, established biomechanics laboratory or to attend a relevant, approved training course.

More details are available at https://isbweb.org/students/student-grants

ISB/ASB 2019 Report

We would like to thank all of you who attended the ISB/ASB 2019 conference in Calgary, Canada. It’s been a historic event for us, hosting ISB/ASB for the second time after 1999, and it’s been historic, we think, for ISB/ASB with almost double the number of participants of previous ISB conferences. The number of delegates required a programming and scheduling that was distinctly different from previous ISB and ASB conferences. Despite 11 parallel sessions for all four days, the number of oral presentations (n=834) was smaller than the number of poster presentations (n=1078). Because of the unpredictable nature of how many people might attend specific sessions, we had overflow rooms with live streaming. On the first day of the conference, this overflow arrangement came in handy when approximately 500 people wanted to attend the same series of sessions (on wearable technologies).

A conference like this one cannot be handled by a single person. The core organizing team consisted of the biomechanics researchers of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Calgary. For the past 3 years, we met regularly for lunch to plan the 2019 event. These meetings were about once a month for 2.5 years, then 2 a month for the six-month preceding the event, and finally weekly for the five weeks prior to Aug. 4^th, 2019 – the opening day.

My thanks go to Benno and Sandro Nigg who were responsible for the budget of ISB/ASB 2019, the venue, accommodations, food, exhibitors, sponsorship, in other words everything outside the actual scientific program. One key event that they organized and made happen was the support for delegates from economically developing countries (EDC). Through sponsorship and through their initiative, we could offer free registration and accommodation for the entire conference for all students and vastly reduced registration for delegates from EDC. These EDC grants were offered to 57 students and 43 regular member delegates. The EDC sponsorship monies exceeded $100,000 and came primarily from our main sponsor Delsys and the de Luca Foundation, selected faculties and laboratories of the University of Calgary, and ISB and ASB. Thank you all!

I would also like to recognize Darren Stefanyshyn who helped in the organization of social and special events at ISB/ASB. A particularly fun event was the “Calgary Alumni” evening with more than 200 people joining us for an informal event at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. It was a pleasure to see so many former students and faculty members return to Calgary, be able to catch up with some who I had not seen in decades, and to reminisce about the old times, when the Human Performance Lab was comprised of less than a dozen people, including trainees, hidden in a single lab behind the service area of the faculty of Kinesiology. We have progressed!

My thanks also go to Brent Edwards and Art Kuo who organized the 46 invited symposia sessions and the 17 invited speakers’ program. Despite the early 8AM scheduling of the 4 or 5 invited speakers, these sessions were well attended, averaging between 1,000 and 1,400 people every day, indicating the great interest in these sessions. Similarly, all 6 keynote sessions were well attended with 1,200 to 1,760 delegates attending these presentations: Hugh Herr’s Wartenweiler Memorial presentation at the opening ceremonies taking the prize for best attended session.

Marco Vaz spent his sabbatical leave with us between August 2018 and August 2019. As the organizer of the Natal ISB 2013, I recruited him as the scientific co-chair. We spent many days (and some nights) sorting out all abstracts and organizing them into meaningful sessions. The principle we followed was that the oral sessions needed to be diverse in representation, but focused in topic. Unfortunately, even in today’s technological world, this cannot be done well with a computer algorithm, but requires knowledge of the area, and knowledge of the people attending and presenting at the conference. Marco brought all that knowledge to the table and was invaluable in helping in the organization of a unique and strong scientific program.

With approximately 100 volunteers helping, it is hard to acknowledge all by name. But among the helpers preparing the registration, the electronic and hard copy programs, the signage, the filming of all keynote, invited and tutorial sessions, I would like to recognize the following: Glenda McNeil, Barbara Holash, and Juliana Heinz Cyr (administration), Azim Jinha, Andy Pohl, and Seong-won Han (posters, programming, online activities), and Xiao-Yu Fu (for filming and overflow room arrangements). It is the exceptional contribution of these individuals, and the dedication and commitment of all volunteers, that made all the difference to the proper logistics and smooth functioning of ISB/ASB 2019.

Below, I am presenting some numbers on ISB/ASB 2019 that maybe of interest to the statistically inclined. Full details were copied to the president’s of ISB and ASB, and if you have further questions regarding numbers and information, we are happy to provide them to you.

 
Thank you all for coming and making ISB/ASB a memorable event. I enjoyed the conference, the science, the meeting of friends and colleagues, and most of all, getting to know many of the new, bright students and trainees. The future of biomechanics is in great hands. And now, I can’t wait to go to Stockholm in 2021.

Walter Herzog   (on behalf of the organizing committee)

2019 ISB Award Winners

Congratulations to all of our award winners at the recent ISB/ASB meeting in Calgary.

David Winter Young Investigator AwarPd (DWYIA) – ORAL

Antoine Falisse, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

"Predicting the mechanics and energetics of a variety of human gaits based on complex musculoskeletal models"

David Winter Young Investigator Award (DWYIA) – POSTER

Baaba Otoo, Human Performance Laboratory, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary.

"Chondrocyte Volumetric Strain Measurements During Cyclic Loading"

Clinical Biomechanics Award (CBA)

Stephan Bodkin, Department of Kinesiology; University of Virginia.

“Knee Extensor Fatigue Resistance in Individuals Following ACL-Reconstruction”.

Promising Scientists Award (PSA)

Eng Kuan Moo, Human Performance Laboratory, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary

Carlo De Luca Emerging Scientists Award (CDL-ESA)

Adrian Ka Ming Lai, Neuromuscular Mechanics Laboratory; Dep. of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

Congress Travel Grant Reports

Julie P. Burland

Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, USA

My name is Julie P. Burland and I received support from the ISB Student Congress Travel Grant to help reduce expenses related to the travel to this year’s XXVI ISB/ASB Congress in Calgary, AB. As a young researcher, I have a strong desire to expand my knowledge base and skill set related to reducing disability after traumatic injury. Being afforded the opportunity to attend the combined ISB/ASB Congress provided me with further insight into the ongoing technological and research advancements within the field of biomechanics. Being able to attend a symposium such as the ISB/ASB World Congress provided me with an immeasurable opportunity to converse amongst other highly regarded academic scholars and scientists. This was exactly the type of opportunity that continues to promote my growth in my career and improve my ability to be a successful independent researcher within the areas of biomechanics following traumatic sport injury.

I had the pleasure of presenting some preliminary work from our laboratory evaluating how temporal delays in quadriceps muscle activation patterns directly influence patient perceived function after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). We found that in patients who had delayed neuromuscular control strategies (i.e. they activated the vastus lateralis of the quadriceps muscle after reaching peak internal knee extension moment) reported worse on commonly utilized subjective outcomes measuring sport related function and quality of life. These findings highlight the need to further evaluate the influence of altered neuromuscular muscle activation strategies during landing and their influence on patient function and quality of life after ACLR. Several discussions following my presentation arose, which bring to light several areas for future research to explore. These included whether there were hamstring co-activation strategies employed by these patients after ACLR that were attempting to compensate for these altered quadriceps activation patterns. Additionally, we discussed how differences between sex may influence such neuromuscular strategies, thus my future research will aim to explore the effect of sex on quadriceps activation patterns during functional tasks. The fruitful discussions had during this conference have provided me with new questions to help the advancement of comprehensive patient care after ACLR.

I thank the committee and the International Society of Biomechanics board for their consideration and commitment to this award.

Annamária Péter

Neuromuscular Research Center, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

This February an e-mail has arrived with such a great news saying that my ISB Student Congress Travel Grant Application has been successful. Then a few weeks later other e-mails arrived regarding my submitted abstracts. I have submitted one abstract to the 14th biennial Footwear Biomechanics Symposium that was held in Kananaskis and one to the XXVI. ISB Congress that was held in Calgary. Both of these abstracts have been accepted as oral presentations. At first, I felt happy and worried at the same time. I was happy because I had such a great opportunity to present our newest studies, meet great researchers and I was worried because I had two oral presentations within a few days from two different studies. Even after presenting my first presentation I felt extremely lucky for this opportunity. For this presentation I also got an award, The Peter Cavanagh Award for Basic Research. One of my Supervisors, Professor Toni Arndt, has got exactly the same Award twenty years ago also in Canada twenty kilometres away from Kananaskis that makes the whole thing even more special.

The ISB Conference was so well-organized from the first minute to the last. Although I have been to some International Conferences before, this was my first ISB Conference (and my first trip outside Europe) that I enjoyed very much. The Scientific program was so great. Even during the Opening Ceremony, after the great talk of Professor Walter Herzog, the presentation of Hugh Herr was so special. I have heard Hugh Herr’s TED talk before so I knew his story and his work but in his presentation he showed us his newest studies and results and that was breathtaking. I really liked that this Conference was much more than “just” a scientific Conference. Since, there were many events such as the student mentoring lunch, student night out, Advancing Women in Biomechanics just to mention a few. During the student mentoring lunch I have got answers to my questions based on my Mentor’s experiences and very useful advice also for my present and future studies. During the student night out I could meet and talk to other students in a local place where we went with the yellow school bus. While during the Advancing Women in Biomechanics event, we learned about how hard it can be for a woman in our (and in any other) field and we have got strategies on how it can be made better. Also, we could talk about our experiences in this matter in small groups and find possible solutions.

Taking part in this Conference was such a great experience that I enjoyed very much. I am very grateful for the International Society of Biomechanics for this opportunity.

András Hegyi

Neuromuscular Research Center, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

The ISB/ASB 2019 congress was organised in Calgary, Canada. As a final-year PhD student, I considered it very important to attend this congress and I was very lucky to get generous support from the ISB and from my supervisors, Taija Finni and Neil Cronin.

Although I visited more than ten international conferences before, those did not focus solely on biomechanics. Therefore, I expected to learn a lot and meet several researchers from my field. I had three main aims for the conference: (1) to present my poster and let others know what I am currently working on, (2) to visit as many sessions as possible (including not only the ones I comfortably understand but also sessions on distant research areas), and (3) to connect with other researchers. I expected that these would help me broaden my perspective on biomechanics and decide which direction I would like to go after I finish my PhD.

This was the second occasion I had a poster presentation and my experience was somewhat mixed. It was very positive that it gave me the opportunity to discuss all the people stopping by my poster. These interactions felt freer, more personal, and not so narrowly focused on the actual work, which was preferable when compared to the general discussion after oral presentations. The negative side was that after a few people visiting my poster it got very boring to explain the poster again and again. In the beginning, I summarised the poster in 6-8 sentences but after an hour it reduced to one short sentence. Possibly, with more experience, I will be able to improve this in this future.

The oral sessions I visited were of very high quality. I visited much more sessions than I usually do at other conferences. I enjoyed the many sessions on tendons and muscles, but also tasted very different areas from mine such as those on wearables, prosthetics, and the biomechanics of wildlife animals. I also appreciated that there was a memorial session on the work of Paavo Komi, who was the leader of my current laboratory for a very long time and stands as a role model for many of us. I barely left any time to rest between sessions, and last day I realised that my brain could not process any new information. During the congress, it became clear that I barely knew anything from the broad field of biomechanics. Although it feels somewhat disappointing after studying so much biomechanics, I also see this as an endless opportunity for improvement.

My third aim, networking, was also beyond expectations. The coffee breaks, long lunch periods, and nearby bars gave great platform for networking. I met old friends and also many others who I have known only from social media and manuscripts. I believe that some of these discussions will result in good collaborations. I learned about several interesting post-doc opportunities, which further motivates me to finalise my PhD thesis.

Additional to the scientific side, I really enjoyed the social events such as the student night out, studient-mentor lunch, and the event on advancing women in biomechanics.

Aside from attending the congress, I had the opportunity to spend some days in the Rocky Mountains and taste the beautiful life of friendly Canadians. Meeting black bear and grizzly bear with cubs in the mountains, and stopping on the highway because of a few dozens of goats wandering on the road are some of the additional experiences I will never forget.

After these days in Canada, I feel like I am part of a new big family and I hope to participate in ISB 2021 in Stockholm, which is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever lived in.

Footwear Biomechanics Group

Footwear Biomechanics Symposium 2019

The 14^th Biennial Footwear Biomechanics Symposium saw a record 285 delegates assemble at the prestigious Kananaskis Resort at the base of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  The organising team of Brent Edwards, Sandro Nigg, Anja-Verena Behling and Bill Wannop are thanked and congratulated for developing such a strong conference programme, with 120 high quality presentations over three days, including keynotes from Thor Besier, Breanne Everett, Richard Kent and Rodger Kram.  Five additional invited presentations from academic and industry-based speakers, highlighted the strong integration of science and industry in the footwear science field. 

New for this conference was presentation of the inaugural FBG Career Excellence Award to Dr E.C. (Ned) Frederick, recognising outstanding lifetime contributions to footwear science.  Congratulations to Ned!    

Student travel grants were awarded for the first time this year, with recipients Pieter Van den Berghe (Ghent University, supervisor Dirk de Clercq) and Ethan Steiner (University of Massachusetts, supervisor Katherine Boyer).

Conference award winners:

Young Investigator Award - Senne Bonnaerens, Ghent University, Belgium ‘Running profiles of recreational distance runners: race, training, spatiotemporal and anthropometrical characteristics’

Innovation Award - Abhishektha Boppana, University of Colorado, USA ‘Using dynamic foot morphology data to design spacesuit footwear’

Applied Research Award - Michael Ryan, Simon Fraser University, Canada ‘The run alternate study: examining the effect of training and footwear variability in the prevention of running pain and injuries’

Methods Award - Emily Matijevich, Vanderbilt University, USA ‘Ground reaction forces don’t indicate tibial forces: implications for injury prevention, shoe design & wearable tech’

Basic Research Award - Annamária Péter, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland ‘Effect of footwear on plantar flexor fine-wire electromyography activity in walking’

We would like to thank the symposium sponsors: University of Calgary: Faculty of Kinesiology, Nike, Brooks, Novel, Xsensor, Gaitup, Fila, Li-Ning, Mizuno, Salomon and Under Armour.

The next Footwear Biomechanics Symposium will take place in Visby, Sweden in 2021.  In the interim, there will be a FBG session as part of the iFAB 2020 meeting in Brazil. 

Footwear Biomechanics Group – Executive Board 2019-2021

The FBG AGM took place on 30^th July 2019.  Following elections in June 2019, the following board members are confirmed for the term 2019-2021:

Chairperson - Sharon Dixon (University of Exeter, UK)

Chairperson Elect – Kathryn Mills (Macquarie University, Australia)

Past-Chairperson - Helen Woo (Under Armour, USA)

Secretary General - Karen Mickle (Victoria University, Australia)

Treasurer - Jay Worobets (Nike, USA)

Industry Representative – Matt Trudeau (Brooks, USA)

Student Representative - Anja-Verena Behling (University of Calgary, Canada)

Informatics Officer – Zachary Barrons (University of Calgary, Canada)

Awards Officer - Bill Wannop (University of Calgary, Canada)

Outgoing Past-Chair - Wolfgang Potthast (German Sport University, Cologne) - was thanked for his service to the group over the past 6 years.

3D-AHM Group

You are invited to attend the XVI International Symposium on 3-D Analysis of Human Movement (3D-AHM 2020, https://register.extension.iastate.edu/movement) on July 12-15, 2020 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA. 

The goal of the 3-D AHM symposium is to provide the best scientific and technical forum for investigators of human motion. The ISB 3D-AHM group explores human movement analysis by improving the technologies (instruments, techniques, algorithms, methods, protocols, models, etc.) and by translating these technologies to various scientific fields and clinical applications. The theme of the 2020 symposium is “From Data to Discovery: Evidence-Based Approaches,” which continues to remind us that sound scientific hypotheses, validated tools/ technology/protocols, and proven data evidence are critical elements to our discovery of new knowledge and applications. 

The organizing and international scientific committees are making every effort to deliver an outstanding and stimulating scientific program accompanied by a number of fun social events. Topics to be covered in presentations and keynote lectures will include various aspects of movement analysis from laboratory-based instrumentation to wearable technologies, from disease assessment to rehabilitation, and from basic biomechanics to clinical translation. 

The symposium will be a fantastic event where scientists, engineers, clinicians and technology leaders as well as students can share their latest research and ground-breaking developments in human movement analysis. Please visit the symposium website,https://register.extension.iastate.edu/movement, for an overview and all relevant deadline information of the symposium.

If you have any questions about the 2020 3D-AHM, please contact us by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We look forward to meeting you in Ames!

Motor Control Technical Group

From Working Group to Technical Group of the International Society of Biomechanics

We are thrilled to announce that ISB has approved the Motor Control Group to become a Technical Group of ISB on July 31, 2019 during the past 2019 ISB/ASB Congress in Calgary, Canada.

The Motor Control Group was established as a Seed Group of ISB at the XXIV Congress of ISB in Natal (Brazil), 2013; and was later named a Working Group of ISB at the XXV Congress of ISB in Glasgow, 2015.

The affiliation recognizes the increasing interest of the Biomechanics community in Motor Control.

We sincerely thank all the members of the ISB Executive Council for their continuous support and recognition, and we look forward to continuing to work towards bridging the fields of Motor Control and Biomechanics!

10th Symposium on Motor Control in Biomechanics

We hosted our 10^th Symposium on Motor Control in Biomechanics on August 2, 2019 in conjunction with the 2019 ISB/ASB Congress in Calgary, Canada.

The symposium featured internationally distinguished researchers in the field of Motor Control and Biomechanics, including:

• Dr. Lena Ting, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) History-dependent muscle forces for sensing and moving in normal and impaired movement
• Dr. Francisco Valero-Cuevas, University of Southern California (USA) Feasibility theory: an integrative approach to neuromuscular control
• Dr. Julia T. Choi, University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA) Using intramuscular coherence to assess cortical contribution to locomotor adaptation
• Dr. Emma Hodson-Tole, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) Evaluating the structure of skeletal muscle excitation and co-ordination to understand performance limits during cycling in humans
• Dr. Yasuo Kawakami, Waseda University (Japan) Musculotendinous mechanics for exercise performance enhancement: importance of motor control

We would like to extend a special thank-you to all the speakers and the 200+ attendees for a fantastic session, to ISB and DLF for their continuous support to our group.

9th Symposium on Motor Control in Biomechanics

We hosted the 9^th Symposium on Motor Control in Biomechanics on May 28, 2019 in conjunction with the 66th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in Orlando, Florida.

The symposium featured internationally distinguished researchers in the field of Motor Control and Biomechanics, including:

• Dr. Robin Queen, Virginia Tech (USA) Using biofeedback to reduce second ACL injury risk.
• Dr. Scott Landry, Acadia University (Canada). Biomechanical and neuromuscular analyses of young athletes.
• Dr. Cara Lewis, Boston University (USA). Hip morphology and movement patterns: rethinking hip pain in athletes.
• Dr. Daniel Cobian, University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). Abnormal quadriceps activation patterns and lower extremity biomechanics in elite collegiate athletes post-ACL reconstruction.
• Dr. Deanna Gates, University of Michigan (USA) The influence of muscle fatigue and pain on multi-joint movements.
• Mrs. Alessandra Matias, University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) Not all forefoot striking is equal.

Thank-you to DLF for their support. We would like to extend a special thank-you to ISB for providing the 2^nd Motor Control Group Student Award in the amount of $500 USD for a student to participate and present in the symposium.

Winner of the 2^nd ISB-sponsored Motor Control Group Student Award

Congratulations to Mrs. Alessandra Matias, PT, Honors Doctorate at University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Research Internship Fellow at Spaulding National Running Center, Harvard Medical School (Cambridge, MA), who was awarded the 2019 Motor Control Group Student Award for her abstract submission titled: “Not all forefoot striking is equal”.

This is the second edition of the Motor Control Group Student Award sponsored by ISB. The 500 US $ award aims at encouraging the participation of students and young investigators in Motor Control research.

About Alessandra Matias: Alessandra is interested in potential treatments for various musculoskeletal disorders, including knee OA and diabetic polyneuropathy. Currently, she is interested in biomechanical factors that contribute to running related injury, and injury-prevention strategies that can be applied in a physical therapy setting. Her work includes implementation, reliability and repeatability of multi-segment foot model. Her PhD project is a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of intrinsic muscles strengthening to reduce injuries associated with running.

Stay tuned for our 2020 events!

Visit our website: ISB Technical Group in Motor Control

Comparative Neuromuscular Biomechanics Working Group

The ISB-ASB 2019 meeting in Calgary saw Comparative Neuromuscular Biomechanics (CNB) recognized as an official ISB Working Group; we are proud and excited to be part of the ISB family!

The congress was action-packed for the CNB.  Our first of two CNB-affiliated symposia: Using Musculoskeletal Modelling in Comparative Biomechanics’ showcased new models (many in OpenSim) including giant Varanidae lizards (modeling monsters!), birds, mice, and humans.

The second symposium: ’Comparative biomechanics across organizational scales’ was preceded by an inspiring talk by Professor Andy Biewener on the contributions of in vivo comparative biomechanics to our understanding of integrated muscle-tendon function in locomotion.  This was followed by an exciting range of talks spanning tissue-level studies of tendon, muscle and bone biomechanics to integrative studies of sensorimotor control scaling and simulation approaches to understanding whole-body movement.

The CNB held a happy-hour in the evening following our second symposium, which as a full house until closing time. Discussions during happy hour sparked several ideas for future events and initiatives for the CNB Group, including a muscle modeling workshop and efforts to curate publicly available open source datasets for the comparative biomechanics community.

Enthusiasm and momentum in the CNB were reflected by a well-attended business meeting at the ISB-ASB 2019 and the Group’s growing member count (68 full/student members).  We are particularly excited to see engagement of scientists in CNB across multiple continents who bring perspectives from experimental and theoretical approaches and from both human and comparative animal study systems.

The CNB is planning new events at the American Society of Biomechanics meeting in Atlanta, GA, (ASB2020) and the ISB2021 Congress in Stockholm.  For updates on our activities please visit our website: https://sites.psu.edu/cnbgroup/ and follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNBiomechanics.

International Foot and Ankle Biomechanics Meeting 2020

April 05-08, São Paulo - Brazil
https://www.i-fab2020.com/

Important dates:

• Deadline for paper submission: November 10, 2019
• Notification of acceptance: December 20, 2019
• Earlybird registration: January 6, 2020
• Meeting: April 5-8, 2020

Meet the confirmed keynotes:

- Toni Arndt, President of the ISB, Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences
- Irene Davis, Harvard Medical School
- Michael Rainbow, Queen's University
- Cesar de Cesar Netto, University of Iowa
- Dennis Bramble, University of Utah