National Biomechanics Day is April 6, 2017!

We invite high school students and teachers to participate at the

University of Minnesota.

National Biomechanics Day is a world-wide celebration of Biomechanics in its many forms for high school students and teachers. NBD 2017 will be a world-wide blast of biomechanics science and fun.

Our long term goal is to foster the development of Biomechanics as a standard component in high school curricula around the world. Our immediate goal is to create synchronized celebrations of Biomechanics among all participating labs and other biomechanics facilities, a Biomechanics Open-House.

This year the University of Minnesota is hosting two sessions engaging students in biomechanics and the importance it has in the world.  Each session is offered twice on April 6th, 9am to 10:30am and 11am to 12:30pm.  You and your students can come to either session or both. The sessions are:

Dental School Session:

Meet the world's first chewing robot (ART-1) for testing the durability of dental restorative materials and its latest version, ART-5. ART-5, so named because it can see, hear, feel, smell and taste, is built for testing food products. It has also been used in an attempt to recreate the micro-wear patterns found in neanderthal's teeth in order to understand their eating habits.

Biomechanics Lab & Medical Device Center Session:

Come and see an optical motion capture system at the Minnesota Rehabilitation Biomechanics Lab, as done in the movies! Tracking human movements in real-time. Learn how these systems work to help enhance treatment and develop preventive programs for individuals with back and/or shoulder pain.  Join in the fun with a vertical jump test on force plates, find out how high you can reach, and compare to the pro’s!

Receive a tour of the infamous Medical Devices Center at the University of Minnesota.  Where they aim to train the next generation of medical device inventors and foster new relationships with the medical device industry and various government agencies in an effort to improve health care worldwide.  See the unique environment that fosters innovators through their extensive resources, including mechanical prototyping, electrical prototyping, 3-D printing and virtual reality.

Please be aware that we will not be providing lunch and/or transportation.

If you are interested in attending please fill out the google form by March 15th, https://goo.gl/forms/cYGMbSDwYV4UD13Y2.

For those who are interested, more information will follow.  If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to contact Mary Foltz at foltz017@umn.edu.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing back from you!

Bests,

Mary Foltz

PhD Student

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine