Research Areas

Whole-Body Biomechanics for Safety

We simulate hazardous environments to understand risky human behavior. We quantify human behavior from motion capture and wearable sensors. This knowledge is essential in driving effective interventions that mitigate accidental injuries and fatalities.

Mobile Brain Imaging via Electroencephalography

We quantify sensorimotor processes in dynamic real-world paradigms. Our methods enable us to assess sensory integration, computational processing, and motor execution of human movement. This insight empowers us to enhance human-environment interactions for effective activity.

Innovations in Safety Technology

We investigate gaps in current safety practices to develop user-informed and sensing-based innovations. Our newly developed devices, informative structures, and personal protective equipment leverage knowledge of human-machine interactions for user-matched safety solutions.

Rehabilitation and Balance Control for Fall Prevention

We investigate effective design parameters of rehabilitation and balance training. We integrate biomechanical and neural  knowledge to tailor and optimize design parameters for high efficacy fall prevention interventions.

Current Research Projects

Effectiveness of Level Tools and Instruction on Optimal Ladder Setup

Workplace fatalities are more prevalent in construction than other industries. Falls are a leading cause of these accidents, contributing to 36% of fatal construction injuries. Working from heights is a known hazard, but inherent to construction (ladders, roofs, scaffolding). Among these elevated heights, ladders are the leading cause of fatal falls from a height.

The objective of this study is to quantify the barriers of safe ladder setup. Prior ladder safety research has identified the optimal ladder setup to prevent movement of the ladder base – movement that causes a ladder fall. Yet, ladder tipping is still a common cause of ladder falls, particularly in residential construction where safety knowledge and resources are limited. There is a need to isolate the disconnect between recommended ladder setup and users’ performance in achieving the optimal ladder setup.

We are quantifying the effects of level tools, instruction, and ground surface on safe ladder setup. Perceived barriers to safe ladder setup will be extracted from construction workers through observed behaviors and structured interviews. This knowledge is required to eliminate the disconnect between safe ladder setup practices and user performance. Broader impacts from this study will comprise of level tool-specific instructional videos to improve safe ladder setup. These deliverables will be validated from residential construction workers via our outcome measures of ladder setup accuracy and ladder tip risk.

Neural Components of Step Training Efficacy with Active and Inhibitory Information

One in three older adults fall each year. Falls among the older adult population commonly lead to severe injuries and adverse outcomes to the quality of life. Injurious falls are a growing healthcare concern with our aging population. Step training programs are a promising fall prevention intervention, reducing fall rate in older adults. Many but not all individuals benefit from step training interventions. To improve efficacy of step training programs, greater knowledge of the underlying mechanisms associated with improved stepping performance is warranted.

The objective of this study is to quantify the neural components of stepping performance. Neural components of active and inhibitory stepping performance will be captured from mobile brain imaging procedures via electroencephalogram (EEG). This knowledge will guide future step training programs that facilitate activation of neural components associated with fall risk reduction and aid in identifying individuals at increased fall risk.

Perception of Falling Objects with Increased Peripheral Vision

Falling objects are a common source to injury in construction. While safety helmets can mitigate the impact of injury from falling objects, advancements in personal protective equipment (PPE) can improve a worker’s perception of falling objects to aid the worker in making a protective postural adjustment.

The objective of this study is to assess the perception of falling objects with increased peripheral vision. We will investigate perception of falling objects across multiple devices and locations. Knowledge from this study will guide advancements in PPE to improve worker safety.

Previous Research Projects

Efficacy of Balance Training with Intermittent Sensory Perturbations in Younger and Older Adults

Balance training paradigms can reduce the financial and paralyzing burden of falls in older adults, but the efficacy of these balance training paradigms is not well understood. This research study is uncovering the sensory integration, computational processes, and motor output responses across four balance training paradigms with intermittent perturbations to a sensory system (visual, somatosensory, auditory, none) between younger and older adults. These results will reveal critical knowledge on balance training efficacy for the aging, falls and neuromechanics fields and is necessary to design interventions of high efficacy to reduce fall injuries in older adults.

In the process of disseminating these results.

Effects of Stroboscopic Goggles on Standing Balance in the Spatiotemporal and Frequency Domains: An Exploratory Study

Physiological, Cognitive and Behavioral Factors of Domestic Ladder Use in Younger and Older Adults

Individual, Environmental, and Biomechanical Factors of Ladder Falls