• Question: what type of experiments are you doing at the moment and why are you doing the experiment

    Asked by tomm to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by mrman.
    • Photo: Peter Styring

      Peter Styring answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      We are trying to develop new polymer surfaces for ski that are super-fast. We need to test them to see if they are both fast and stable. It’s no use having a ski that’s the fastest in the market but means you can’t turn the ski. If you crash you lose! I have a PhD student working on it who is also a skier so that helps!

    • Photo: Sian Lawson

      Sian Lawson answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      We (my team and I) are doing:
      – An assessment of how people walk in six hundred 63 year olds, to see if the way we walk is one of the causes of osteoarthritis. This involves strapping sensors to them and recording the accelerations as they step.
      – Study of hand function to inform the design of artificial hands, using force tranduscers and a haptic robot.
      – Study of finger tendons under extreme loading in elite climbers and average people, using infra-red cameras and reflective motion capture markers.
      – Study of effect of age on locomotion in performance horses – filming horses of different ages to see how tendon degeneration affects the way they move, and whether it’s predictable.
      – Looking at optimising rehabiliation for children with traumatic brain injuries.
      We’re just finishing studies on motion perception and artificial shoulders.

      All my studies tend to involve some form of motion capture and computational modelling, and often some form of imaging such as MRI.

    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      At the moment i’m looking short term and long term supplementation of green tea on fat burning during exercise.

      I am giving my subjects capsules of green tea and getting them to come into my lab after 1 day and 7 days of supplementation to do an exercise test. During the exercise I take measurements from them to calculate the amount of fat and carbohydrate that they used for energy. I’m looking at whether 1 day of supplementation is just as effective as 7 days.

    • Photo: Sally Barber

      Sally Barber answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      At the moment I am doing an experiement with frail old people to see if they get stronger, are able to cope better at home, feel happier and reduce their chances of falling over or going into hospital if they do some exercises every day.

      To do this I have designed an exercise manual especially for frail old people. I had to talk to old people themselves to find out what they found difficult to do in their everyday life, what sorts of exercises they would be happy to do and what the manual should look like (with pictures, colours, the font size). I also had to speak to physiotherapists and other medical professionals like nurses who work alot with old people, to see what sort of exercises they thought the frail old people would benefit from. Now I am taking measurements of how frail the older people are, how well they cope at home, if they are depressed, if they fall or go into hospital and what their quality of life is. Half of the older people (50 people) will get a copy of the exercise manual and have some visits from a physiotherapist, half (50) will not. After 3 months I will repeat the measurements and see whether the frail older people who completed the exercise programme improved.

      The reason that I am doing this is because as we get older our muscles and bones get weaker. World wide life expectancy is increasing, but people are not necessarily healthy during these extra years of life. Exercise has been shown to improve health in older people but when they become frail we don’t know whether exercise has the same benefits. If I can show that exercise can improve health and quality of life in frail older people then the NHS may take the exercise manual that I have made and included in their services. The exercise programme would then be available for frail old people across the country to benefit from it.

    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      At the moment I am doing experiments looking at how much activity young people do (aged 10-16) and how this relates to things like their level of body fat and their cardiovascular health (how healthy their heart/arteries are). I am doing this a sort of a start up project for a bigger international project I am involved in next year.

      Overall I am trying to find ways in which those young people who take part in physical activity stay fit and healthy as they get older. Does playing football for example help young people to maintain a healthy weight, have a low amount of body fat and help to keep their heart healthy? If it does…then if we can find ways to increase the amount of people who take part in football (or any other sport!)…we can help to keep people fot and healthy and reduce the amount of young people who are becoming overweight or obese. At the minute 33% of people aged 12-15 are overweight or obese and this has many health problems assocaited with it like diabetes and cardiovascular disease..so we really need to find ways to keep these people active and help keep them healthy!

Comments