Exercise and the environment (heat, cold, and altitude), together or separate, cause challenges to the body that require adjustments on the cellular and whole-body level. Our research focus is to uncover how humans respond and adapt to these stressors. We study individuals ranging from clinical populations (like hypertension or polycystic ovarian syndrome) to athletes as they all offer a unique perspective of how the body responds. We gain insight into how these stressors can be used to improve quality of life and health span, update safety guidelines, enhance recovery, or optimize athletic performance. Our discoveries allow researchers, clinicians, coaches, and ourselves to better the lives of our community.

Market-available soccer footwear is historically designed according to male athlete mechanics. With known sex differences in movement patterns, joint moments, and joint loading between sex, it should not be assumed that the female body is able to withstand the same amount of rotational and translational traction as do males.

We think that soccer cleats could play a key role in moderating female athletes’ exposure to torsional injury mechanisms, such as those related to ACL injury. Ongoing research into looks to how individual traction characteristics can be best suited to the lower extremity mechanics of the female athlete, inclusive of stud length, stud shape and stud positioning. Research over the course of this dissertation will eventually lead to the design of a customized traction plate for the female soccer player, with the intent of reducing knee loading and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

This project is using machine learning algorithms to develop models for estimation of ground reaction forces during running using inertial measurement units (IMUs) as input, and force-instrumented insoles as the model standard. Data from an initial sample of community runners have been collected in a variety of running conditions, including fixed-pace runs on a track, prescribed outdoor runs over various terrain and grades, and validation runs on a force-instrumented treadmill. Outcomes of the study should lead to improved models of injury prevention and prediction of training performance.