Otterbein University is moving ahead by slowing down. The school’s new Biomechanics Institute confronts the challenging of studying actions that are too fast and complex for the naked human eye to process.
The institute is a collaboration between Otterbein’s departments of engineering and health and sports sciences that will allow for the study of the complex biological and muscular activities that make up biomechanics. State of the art technology, including cameras and software that allow researchers to view all planes of motion and manipulate them to understand a person’s movements on a muscular and skeletal level, will push for innovative discoveries.
Photos courtesy of Otterbein University
The Biomechanics Institute, located in the Point, has a camera setup ranging throughout the entire room, which allows researchers to study motions that require large spaces. The technology works by setting up motion-capture body markers on an individual’s body in key points such as joints and major muscle groups. Then, the software creates a 3D model of that person. Imagine a stick person that researchers can manipulate to focus on specific motions or parts of the body.
Shelley Payne, associate professor of health and sports sciences at Otterbein, as well as a physical therapist and athletic trainer, is excited to welcome the institute as it will further both her own research and her students’ education.
“When you think about labs in an institution,” she says, “they’re mostly focused on research. While we certainly will use (the institute) for research, we really have a three-pronged approach to what will happen at the Biomechanics Institute, which involves, first and foremost, excellence in our teaching.”
Payne says the institute is a great way to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities, allowing them to apply what they’re learning in the classroom to the real world.
The second prong focuses on how Payne and other faculty members can use the institute for their own research.
“We all are different practitioners with different groups we’re working with,” she says. “We’ve spent a great deal of our professional lives being very connected to things related to injury prevention, including the way someone runs or the way that they throw. Our research will really be centered within, very likely around, a sports population.”
The final prong looks at how the institute can be used to enhance sports performance.
Payne says the institute can help researchers understand movement patterns, how they might change in regard to some sort of strength training or conditioning exercise and how that can benefit that specific athlete and others.
These three prongs allow the institute to conduct a range of research and studies while, of course, putting the Otterbein students’ education first.
“(The institute) gives us a tremendous opportunity to let our students learn to use an up-and-coming technology,” Payne says. “It increases their ability to become employed in different settings, to pursue different types of master’s work that maybe they’ve never thought of. It’s one more tool for them to add to their toolbox.”
Megan Roth is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
