The Biomechanics/Sports Medicine Lab is directed by Songning Zhang, who teaches courses in biomechanics and applied anatomy. The lab is housed in a 3,000-square-foot facility for subject preparation, warm-up, testing, data processing and analysis, and teaching in biomechanics. The lab includes several designated areas:
- A main data collection area that features a nine-camera high-speed motion-capture system mounted on adjustable (vertically and horizontally) rails and two force platforms mounted on a mounting structure flexible adjustment of the force platforms’ positions to accommodate a variety of data collection needs
- A secondary data collection area featuring a six-camera high-speed motion capture system mounted on adjustable tripods around a treadmill and unweighing system
- A balance testing area
- An isokinetic testing area
- An in-house computer lab with six networked PC computers
- Three office partitions for graduate students
- A large and a small storage area for equipment and testing products
- Several independent carts on wheels with independent computer and hardware for data collection and analysis
The lab is equipped with the following hardware and software:
1 9-camera MX3/T10 1000 Hz motion analysis system (Vicon Inc)
1 6-camera 240 Hz motion analysis system (Vicon Inc)
3 Force platforms (600×600, 454×508, AMTI)
1 Instrumented stairs (work with force platforms)
1 8-channel Noraxon tethered EMG system (expandable to 16 channels)
1 Insole plantar pressure system (RSscan Inc.).
1 Plantar pressure mat system (RSscan Inc.).
1 Commercial grade Treadmill (Precor)
1 Davis pointer (C-motion, Inc.)
1 Unweighing system (Biodex Inc.)
1 F-Scan plantar pressure system (Texscan Inc.)
1 Plantar pressure mat system (Texscan Inc.)
2 APAS video analysis systems (one DOS based and one Window based)
1 JVC high-speed digital video camera
2 JVC VCR camcorders
1 Lafayette Stabilometer
2 Harris mats- plantar pressure/area measurement systems
1 AHIMS system (Arch Height Index Measurement System, JAK Tool and Model, LLC)
1 Vertec jump height measurement system
2 Vertec jump height measurement boards
1 Customized ankle inversion device
1 Customized overhead bar with motorized adjustable heights
1 Trunk dynamometer (Biodex Inc.)
2 Stationary bikes
2 Scales – height, weight
1 Basketball exploder tower
2 Sets of Lafayette photo cells
2 Lafayette electronic multifunction timers
2 Electrogoniometers (Biometrics Inc.)
2 Uni-axial accelerometers (PCB Inc.)
1 Tri-axial accelerometers (PCB Inc.)
1 4-channel line-conditioning unit (PCB Inc.)
2 Amplifiers (Biopac Inc.)
Handheld goniometers
2 Anthropometers
1 Mindware wireless ambulatory monitor (Biometrics Inc.)
2 Set of lab running shoes for males and 1 set for females
1 Set of lab sport sandals
Visual3D (C-motion, Inc)
SIMM—Software for Interactive Musculoskeletal Modeling (Motion Analysis Inc.)
OpenSIMM—an open-source software system dynamic simulations of movement (Simbios, a NIH center at Stanford University)
Matlab engineering computing suite with variety of toolboxes (Mathwork)
Microsoft Visual Studio
Labview (National Instrument)
Vicon BodyBuilder
Vicon Polygon
Ariel Performance Analysis System (Aireal Dynamics, Inc)
SAS
SPSS
AutoCAD and 3D studio (AutoCad)
ImageJ (NIH)
Various customized computer programs for data analysis and processing
SIMM—Software for Interactive Musculoskeletal Modeling (Motion Analysis Inc.)
OpenSIMM—an open-source software system dynamic simulations of movement (Simbios, a NIH center at Stanford University)
Matlab engineering computing suite with variety of toolboxes (Mathwork)
Microsoft Visual Studio
Labview (National Instrument)
Vicon BodyBuilder
Vicon Polygon
Ariel Performance Analysis System (Aireal Dynamics, Inc)
SAS
SPSS
AutoCAD and 3D studio (AutoCad)
ImageJ (NIH)
Various customized computer programs for data analysis and processing
Applications
Information about the graduate programs in biomechanics, assistantship opportunities, and applications can be found on the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies Graduate Programs webpages.