
Biomechanics on our Minds
Your favorite biomechanics podcast! Melissa Boswell, PhD, and Hannah O'Day, PhD, researchers at Stanford University, talk to researchers around the world about the exciting field of human (and animal) movement biomechanics. They also cover overcoming failures, collaborations, open science, leadership, and more. For more information, visit our website biomechanicsonourminds.com.
Latest episodes

Jun 2, 2022 • 57min
Episode 52: Holla Back at Brain Biomechanics | Maria Holland
In this episode we talk with Maria Holland, Assistant Professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame. We talked about the implications of different properties of the brain and how we can apply biomechanics to study brain growth such as changes in folding and cortical thickness.
Thank you to our sponsors!
SageMotion: sagemotion.com
Support BOOM on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/biomechanicsonourminds
Connect with Maria!
Lab website: https://commandlab.nd.edu/
Twitter: @mholla_back
Biomechanics in the wild: https://sites.nd.edu/biomechanics-in-the-wild/
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsonourminds
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
YouTube: Biomechanics On Our Minds
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com
Resources
More info about the NSF Career award: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/faculty-early-career-development-program-career
Papers on cortical thickness:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbm.25776
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10237-020-01400-w
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjst/e2020-000001-6

May 5, 2022 • 57min
Episode 51: Weaving Together Space, Aging, and Vehicle Safety Biomechanics | Ashley Weaver
We had so much fun talking to Professor Ashley Weaver, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Wake Forest School of Medicine about both her impactful research and educational projects. Her research spans three themes: 1) injury/crash biomechanics to improve car safety design elements 2) osteoporosis in aging and 3) the effects of space and microgravity on astronaut musculoskeletal systems. She uses a number of imaging modalities and modeling techniques to explore these themes and improve human biomechanics and health. She also directs university graduate and undergraduate programs to train the next generation of leaders and shares some tips on mentorship and building community.
Connect with Ashely Weaver!
Personal webpage: https://school.wakehealth.edu/Faculty/W/Ashley-Anne-Weaver
Twitter: @AshleyAWeaver
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-weaver-3808548/
Wake Forest BME department Twitter: @WakeBME
Thank you to our sponsors!
SageMotion: sagemotion.com
Support BOOM on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/biomechanicsonourminds
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsonourminds
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
YouTube: Biomechanics On Our Minds
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com
Resources
Bit of BOOM paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021929021006576?casa_token=YUAIfXRWLb8AAAAA:G3jlIzklFlJQVa73ALl9OdCGjyZ4lw-_AiPUmjrZ8xME-_rg0xl250KK8sKD3QYWUrffPyU
Paper referenced in question 5: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10439-021-02745-8

Apr 6, 2022 • 1h 4min
Episode 50: Celebrating BOOM | Hannah and Melissa
Happy 50th episode of BOOM! The tables are turned on the "BOOM doctors" Hannah and Melissa and they answer YOUR questions about BOOM, biomechanics, the future, fails, and more.
A note from your hosts...
We are SO grateful for all of your support since the beginning of BOOM. We've loved being on this journey with you and can't wait to see what the future holds for BOOM and biomechanics. Much love, Melissa and Hannah
Thank you to our sponsors!
SageMotion: sagemotion.com
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsonourminds
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
YouTube: Biomechanics On Our Minds
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com
Thank you to our sponsors!
SageMotion: sagemotion.com
Support BOOM on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/biomechanicsonourminds

Mar 16, 2022 • 39min
Bonus Episode: Your Friendly Neighborhood Markerless Motion Capture | Jon Matthis
In this episode we talk to Jonathan Samir Matthis, tenure-track professor of human movement neuroscience in Boston and founder of the FreeMoCap Foundation. We discuss how FreeMocap is collaboratively and thoughtfully “duct-taping together” open-source software to make it more accessible and usable for all.
Connect with Jon Matthis!
FreeMoCap website: freemocap.org
Twitter: @JonMatthis
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsonourminds
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
YouTube: Biomechanics On Our Minds
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com
Resources
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982218303099

Mar 2, 2022 • 1h 7min
Episode 49: On-Field Baseball Biomechanics - Don't Be Deceived | Mike Sonne
Our guest today is Dr. Mike Sonne, chief scientist at Three Motion AI where they use biomechanics to elevate athlete training and performance in baseball! We learn about how to translate biomechanical evaluations into useable applications like quantifying changes in performance. While you don’t need to be a baseball expert to enjoy this epsiode, we think you’ll be excited to see how biomechanics is informing professional baseball players and get inspired to make a big impact in your own work.
Connect with Mike Sonne!
Twitter: @DrMikeSonne
ProPlayAI twitter: @proplayai
ProPlayAI: proplayai.com
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsonourminds
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
YouTube: Biomechanics On Our Minds
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com

Feb 2, 2022 • 54min
Episode 48: Bioengineering Your Own Path | Bob Guldberg
On this episode, we talk with Dr. Bob Guldberg, who is the Vice President and the Executive Director of the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon. We loved learning about being a successful academic entrepreneur and his work in musculoskeletal tissue regeneration. Bob also shares the importance of embracing interdisciplinarity and creating diverse and inclusive communities (even with our four-legged friends).
Connect with Bob Guldberg!
Lab website: https://www.guldberglab.org
Knight Campus Twitter: @UOKnightCampus
Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Twitter: @WuTsaiAlliance
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsonourminds
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
YouTube: Biomechanics On Our Minds
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com
Resources
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9627987

Jan 5, 2022 • 59min
Episode 47: Fashion Meets Biomechanics | Martha Hall
On this episode of BOOM, we host Dr. Martha Hall, the Director of Innovation of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware and the founder of Dr. Martha Hall Designs and FashionableScience.com, which are dedicated to promoting and creating adaptive apparel, wearable technology, and other innovative solutions to empower populations with special needs. Martha shares with us how she successfully bridges fashion, biomechanics, engineering, entrepreneurship, and other fields for the human-focused, holistic design of wearable systems. She shares her insights on translating research developments into accessible devices and carving a new field spanning fashion and biomechanics.
Connect with Martha!
Innovation Lab website: https://sites.udel.edu/innovationlab/
Martha's website: https://drmarthahalldesigns.com/
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsOOM
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com

Dec 20, 2021 • 47min
Bonus Episode: Markerless Motion Capture | Scott Selbie
In this episode, we dive into markerless motion capture with Dr. Scott Selbie, the Chief Executive Officers of Theia Markerless Inc, Director of Research at C-Motion Inc, an adjunct Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Queen's University and in the department of Kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts.
We talk about the exciting future of markerless motion capture, the barriers of markerless becoming the new “gold standard” to motion capture, and how Theia aims to overcome these challenges. We also discuss start-ups, industry, and (one of our favorite topics) failure!
Additional clarification: To add to our discussion about discussing feature identification, we wanted to add the note that the salient points for the neural network are points that are not necessarily equivalent to the locations that markers are placed. With a physical marker, palpation identifies bony landmarks. For salient features it is less important that the marker represent a bony prominence than it is a location that can be reliably identified on a video image. It turns out that the reliable locations are not coincident with a bony prominence.
Theia Markerless is a young start-up that is revolutionizing motion capture in biomechanics by harnessing machine vision and artificial intelligence to provide incredibly accurate markerless motion capture software that is simple, powerful, and versatile. To find out more, follow Theia on Twitter or go to www.theiamarkerless.ca
Connect with Theia!
Website: www.theiamarkerless.ca
Twitter: @theiamarkerless
Connect with Scott Sebie!
Twitter: @wscottselbie
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsOOM
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com

Dec 1, 2021 • 54min
Episode 46: Bilingual Biomechanists in Digital Health | Alison McGregor
In this episode, Professor Alison McGregor is on the show! Alison is a Professor of Musculoskeletal Biodynamics in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at the Imperial College London, where she manages the Human Performance Group. We dive deep into the importance of speaking the language of engineers and clinicians when developing digital health solutions for clinical problems. Alison shares her tips for communicating across disciplines and with patients to develop the most effective treatments. She also shares how biomechanics has played a role in developing interventions for managing lower back pain and improving sedentary behavior.
Connect with Alison!
Alison's website: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/a.mcgregor
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsOOM
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com

Nov 3, 2021 • 51min
Episode 45: Wearable Systems and Starting A Lab Internationally | Pete Shull
In this interview, we talk with Pete Shull, Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and who is the principal investigator of the Wearable Systems Laboratory. Pete shares exciting new wearables and robotics research including hand gesture recognition from a wrist-worn sensor and energy harvesting shoes. We discuss the pros and cons of starting a company that stems from research innovations and he shares his experience starting a research lab in Shangai, from both a research and personal perspective!
Follow Pete Shull!
Wearable Systems Lab: http://www.wearablesystems.org/research
SageMotion Systems: https://www.sagemotion.com/
Connect with BOOM!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @biomechanicsOOM
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biomechanicsoom/
Website and shop: biomechanicsonourminds.com