Balance problems affect more than eight million adults, and the percentage of balance problems increases with age. Globally, the population is aging, making balance problems a relevant topic of investigation. Balance impairments are the primary cause of falls, which result in debilitating injuries, especially for the elderly population. There is a significant opportunity for students in engineering and other disciplines to explore and contribute to research and education in this area. In this work, a group of graduate students from electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering present research that will be mapped into an educational module on this topic. This module is co-created with faculty and domain experts. Sensors of various types are being investigated for monitoring gait and identifying the propensity for losing balance. A survey of the state of the art of sensor technology pertaining to balance is conducted. Models of human balance during quiet standing are investigated. An interactive simulation tool is developed to allow students to vary the model parameters and gain an intuitive understanding of the engineering principles involved. For engineering students, this offers many opportunities to better understand how topics they study in engineering courses relate to a significant societal problem. For students in courses such as statics, dynamics, and control systems, the concepts of change in the center of mass, the center of pressure, the inverted pendulum, and stability can be reinforced in relation to the balance dynamics problem. This paper describes the framework that will be used in an educational module that will improve undergraduate engineering concepts through balance dynamics experiments and simulations, and present interdisciplinary research problems to graduate students. This study contributes to an Innovations in Graduate Education National Science Foundation research project.
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Human Balance Models for Engineering Education: An Innovative Graduate Co-Creation Project
Balance problems affect more than eight million adults, and the percentage of balance problems increases with age. Globally, the population is aging, making balance problems a relevant topic of investigation. Balance impairments are the primary cause of falls, which result in debilitating injuries, especially for the elderly population. There is a significant opportunity for students in engineering and other disciplines to explore and contribute to
research and education in this area. In this work, a group of graduate students from electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering present research that will be mapped into an educational module on this topic. This module is co-created with faculty and domain experts. Sensors of various types are being investigated for monitoring gait and identifying the propensity for losing balance. A survey of the state of the art of sensor technology pertaining to balance is conducted. Models of human balance during quiet standing are investigated. An interactive simulation tool is developed to allow students to vary the model parameters and gain an intuitive understanding of the engineering principles involved. For engineering students, this offers many opportunities to better understand how topics they study in engineering courses relate to a significant societal problem. For students in courses such as statics, dynamics, and control systems, the concepts of change in the center of mass, the center of pressure, the inverted pendulum, and stability can be reinforced in relation to the balance dynamics problem. This paper describes the framework that will be used in an educational module that will improve undergraduate engineering concepts through balance dynamics experiments and simulations, and present interdisciplinary research problems to graduate students. This study contributes to an Innovations in Graduate Education National Science Foundation research project.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2105701
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10432179
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE annual conference exposition
- ISSN:
- 2153-5965
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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