Educational offer - University of Padova

Syllabus

Prerequisites:	The knowledge of elements of applied mechanics and mechanics of materials is recommended, as well as the knowledge of differential mathematics and vectorial algebra.
Target skills and knowledge:	SKILLS TO BE DEVELOPED DURING THE COURSE 1. Ability of identifying the perfomance, comfort and safety quality requirements of sport – rehabilitation equipments and to correlate with their engineering quantitative parameters. 2. Ability of formulating a research project in Sports & Rehabilitation Engineering with identification of independent and dependent variables and of the Research Question. 3. Ability of defining the most appropriate instrumentations and methods useful for developing the research project and answering to the research question. 4. Ability of designing a measurement system for the quantification of the structural/dynamic behavior of sport/rehabilitation devices during real use. 5. Ability of decomposing a sports/rehabilitation movement into different Phases, separated by fundamental events, in order to describe analytically the movement of body segments and joints as well as the activation of muscle groups. 6. Ability of describing quantitatively the posture of a subject in the fundamental planes by means of arrays of segment absolute angles and of joint relative angles. 7. Ability of representing the sport/rehabilitation movements by means of temporal diagrams of kinematic, kinetic and physiological quantities and perform their analysis after normalization or frequency analysis. 8. Ability of introducing the most significant biomechanical model for the static and dynamic analysis of human joints, by using also muscoloskeletal simulation SW. 9. Ability of determining the statistical significance of collected data by means of t-test, correlation, ANOVA on repeated measurements or independent measurements, in order to answer to the initial Research Question. 10. Ability of planning and conducting an assigned research project after identifying the experimental instrumentation and methods, perfroming the tests and analyzing the results. 11. Ability of preparing a final report and a powerpoint presentation of the project and to discuss it with the other students, the professor and some industry representatives involved in the project topic.
Examination methods:	The exam will consist of a written assessement, covering all the topics of the lectures and the laboratory esperiences. An oral discussion will follow the written assessement in order to integrate its results with questions regarding the anathomy and physiology of the muscoloskeletal system. The final mark will take also into account the evaluation of the group project conduction and presentation and of the weekly assigned homeworks.
Assessment criteria:	The final mark will be the average of two marks: the written assessment (augmented by the average mark of the weekly assigned homeworks, from 0 to +3), and the oral discussion. The mark assigned to the group project conduction and presentation (agreed with the industry representatives, 0..+5) will be added to the resulting average of the two previuos marks.
Course unit contents:	COURSE CONTENTS: Fundamentals: 1. Basic knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the musculoskeletal system. 2. Quantitative anthropometry. 3. Modelling equilibrium and motion of the segments of the human body. 4. Analysis of gait and running. Methodologies: 5. Sensors and systems for the evaluation of kinematic, kinetic and physiological parameters during the sport exercise: motion capture systems, force platforms, pressure insoles, electromyography. 6. Design and calibration of strain gauge multi-component load cells for the collection of functional loads at the human body – equipment interfaces. 7. Musculoskeletal simulation codes. 8. Design of a research project for the statistical evaluation of sport and rehabilitation devices. Applications: 9. Classification of sport equipments and rehabilitation devices. 10. Identification of perfomance, comfort and safety parameters of sport – rehabilitation equipments. 11. Knowledge of safety standards, implementation of standard tests methods. 12. Functional evaluation of sport equipments, orthoses, assistive technologies, prostheses and training or rehabilitation machines.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods:	The course will be composed of a main set of lectures in english, given by the teacher with the use of the blackboard and of PC presentations. Two experimental sessions will also be held: one in the Sports Biomechanics Lab (motion capture) and the second in the Sports Engineering Lab. (strain gauged components). A computer lab session using muskoloskeletal modelling softwares will complete the practical teaching sessions. The students will then be divided into groups of 3-5 peoples and will be asked to perform the tests needed to answer to the agreed research question: their tests will be supervised by the teacher and his collaborators acting as tutors. AVAILABLE INSTRUMENTATIONS in the LABORATORIES Motion Capture Smart -BTS®, Inertial Motion Units MTW Xsens, Dynamometric platform Bertec®, Pressure insoles Novel®, Force sensors Tekscan, Electromyography Pocket BTS ®, Minibionix MTS® tensile test machine, MFT torsion test bench, Somat® and IMC® portable data loggers, Racing and MTB bicycles with instrumented handlebar, saddle, pedals, frame, dynamometric bindings for snowboard and skis, instrumented paddle and oars for kayak and canoe, instrumented rollerblades and baseball bat.
Additional notes about suggested reading:	TEACHING MATERIAL: -Slides from lectures -Notes from the lectures -Anatomy/Physiolgy notes. -Scientific Publications about sports equipments, ortheses and rehabilitation devices.
Textbooks (and optional supplementary readings)	J. Richards, Biomechanics in Clinic and Research. --: Elsevier, 2008.