Workshops

In movement science, time series data are often noisy. For example, spatiotemporal parameters measured while locomoting or maintaining upright posture often vary considerably over several minutes of observation. Traditional linear statistics such as the mean and standard deviation often fail to capture these time varying properties. A key feature of biological signals such as heart rate, neural activity, and human walking is that they entail coordination across many timescales. These scales range from milliseconds important in neuroscience to the multiple minutes that make up bouts of walking. Thus, analytical methods are required to address the multiscale nature of human movement and physiological data. One class of methods, collectively known as multifractal analysis, is naturally suited to this task. This workshop will introduce fractal theory and its relevance to the control of human movements and physiology. In addition, workshop attendees will be provided hands-on instruction in applying multifractal methods to human movement data with MATLAB. The hands-on instruction will also include details on best practices. Upon workshop completion, participants will acquire (1) a deeper understanding of the underlying mathematics and theory on multifractality in movement science, (2) software for performing analyses on their own data, and (3) knowledge on best practices for multifractal analysis in research. Workshop attendees are strongly encouraged to bring their own data to maximize learning during the workshop; however, example datasets will also be provided. The only prerequisites are college level algebra and a basic proficiency with MATLAB. Participants of all backgrounds including researchers, clinicians, and students of all levels are encouraged to attend.

The Canadian and United States (U.S.) federal governments fund biomechanics research and have many available funding opportunities across multiple agencies. This workshop will include several funding agency representatives from Canada (Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)) and the United States (National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC)). They will present current information on research programs and initiatives, training and career development opportunities, and application and review processes. Differences between governments/agencies will be highlighted. Federal representatives attend conferences like NACOB to keep abreast of cutting-edge science, meet with attendees, disseminate funding opportunities, and answer applicant or grantee questions. Some federal representatives may be able to connect people performing similar research or addressing related research questions from different avenues to facilitate new collaborations. Attendees will have opportunities during the conference to reach out to these individuals with further questions. After presentations by a designated speaker from each agency, there will be open Q&A for all panelists. Handouts and contact information will be provided. This workshop is appropriate for researchers of all career stages, from trainees to senior investigators. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the Canadian and U.S. federal funding application and review processes, as well the similarities and differences between the respective funding agencies.

This workshop will help attendees create successful National Biomechanics Day outreach programs and to evaluate the educational outcomes of the programs. Specifically, we will address
1. Philosophy, purpose, and value of biomechanics outreach including unifying outreach across the field of biomechanics
2. Mechanisms and procedures for successful, sustained universal outreach
3. Diversifying biomechanics science through outreach
4. Educational outcome assessment and publication
5. Broadening biomechanics science dance biomechanics

According to the hierarchy of evidence for the evaluation of health care outcomes, the best way for seeking the truth is with randomized clinical trials. They are considered the gold standard because they deliver the highest level of evidence, due to their potential to limit bias. This tutorial will discuss why it is important for biomechanists to be involved in randomized clinical trials and provide the basics of randomized clinical trials design by weaving these fundamentals into the multidisciplinary study of non-surgical interventions to treat knee osteoarthritis. The tutorial will conclude with a discussion of NIH funding mechanisms that lead to the submission of a randomized clinical trial and the importance of building a multidisciplinary research team.