NCSRR/OpenSim 2017 Pilot Project Winners Selected
We got an outstanding response to our call for proposals this year. Given the high caliber of the applicant pool, we carefully reviewed the applications with the NCSRR Scientific Advisory Board, following NIH guidelines for conflicts of interest.

We selected three projects for NCSRR Outstanding Research Grants (full Pilot Awards):

· Jason Franz, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University: Incorporating physiological moment arm dynamics into simulations of human movement

· Ryan Roemmich, Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Identifying patient-specific contributors to the elevated energy cost of walking after stroke

· Rob Siston, The Ohio State University: Determining the effects of surgical technique and patient-specific factors on the ability to rise from a chair following total knee arthroplasty

We also granted ten Outstanding Researcher Awards and Travel Awards, which include funds to attend an OpenSim workshop.

· Outstanding Researcher Award Winners: Josep Maria Font-Llagunes, Thomas Overbergh and Lennart Scheys, Peter Shull, Anita Vasavada, Michael Yip

· Travel Award Winners: Dennis Anderson and Hossein Mokhtarzadeh, William Anderst, Musa Audu, James Martin and Jennifer Nichols, Meghan Vidt

See the full list of 2017 Pilot Project Program Projects on our website. Congratulations to all the winners!

Simulation of Constrained Musculoskeletal Systems in Task Space
Dimitar Stanev and Konstantinos Moustakas from the University of Patras in Greece have published an article in the October 2017 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering proposing an operational task space formalization for constrained musculoskeletal systems. This framework enables an intuitive description of the desired movement (task) and relates it to the corresponding muscle excitation patterns. It was found to be effective in solving inverse kinematics problems. The models, demo video, and source code are available on their SimTK project page.

Diverse Projects Advance through Recent OpenSim Virtual Workshop

A group of 27 researchers gathered virtually to advance their OpenSim projects during the October 2017 Virtual Workshop. Projects covered a range of topics including quantifying muscle function during accelerated sprint running, analyzing trunk movements in those with lower extremity amputation, and developing a new muscle model to predict motor unit recruitment patterns. Congratulations also to the award winners from the workshop:

· “Coolest Demo/Video” - Pavlos Silvestros and Dario Cazzola, University of Bath

· “Biggest Research Discovery” - Adam Yoder, Shawn Farrokhi, Chris Dearth, and Brad Hendershot, DoD-VA Extremity and Amputation Center of Excellence, Naval Medical Center, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

· “Technical Grand Prize” - Adrian Lai and James Wakeling, Simon Fraser University

Learn more about the workshop projects and what they accomplished.

Highlights of OpenSim Workshop at SOFAMEA and SB Meeting in Paris

Twenty-two academic, clinical, and Ph.D. student participants from Europe and North Africa became familiar with OpenSim during the beginners’ workshop organized by OpenSim Fellow Luca Modenese and colleague Clement Favier at the Institut de Biomecanique Humaine Georges Charpak in Paris on October 19, 2017. The workshop was sponsored by SOFAMEA (Société Francophone d'Analyse du Mouvement chez l'Enfant et l'Adulte) and SB (Société de Biomécanique). Slides and materials from the workshop are available in English and French here.

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Joy P. Ku, PhD

Project Manager, SimTK

Director of Communications & Training, NCSRR

Director of Communications & Engagement, Mobilize Center

Stanford University

(w) 650.736.8434, (f) 650.723.7461

Email: joyku@stanford.edu