
CSB-SCB Awards
The Canadian Society for Biomechanics is pleased to congratulate the 2024 awardees of the David Winter Early Career Investigator Award and the CSB-SCB Career Award.
David Winter Early Career Investigator Award
Allison Clouthier
University of Ottawa
Dr. Clouthier received a PhD in mechanical and materials engineering with a specialization in biomedical engineering from Queen’s University in 2018. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa in the School of Human Kinetics, before joining the school as an assistant professor. Dr. Clouthier’s research is focused on understanding how patient-specific factors contribute to the risk of musculoskeletal pathology and the success of treatment. She is interested in measuring and simulating knee joint biomechanics, to investigate how characteristics such as joint geometry can affect function and contribute to pathology such as patellofemoral pain or instability. Her work combines techniques such as musculoskeletal simulation and artificial intelligence with various motion capture technologies to study individualized joint biomechanics.
Plenary Lecture: Personalized, dynamic, and accessible analysis of knee biomechanics to optimize musculoskeletal function
Tuesday August 20, 2024
8:45 - 9:15 am
Allison Clouthier is an assistant professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. She completed her PhD in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Queen’s University in 2018. Her research is focused on understanding how person-specific characteristics affect the function and dysfunction of the knee. Her and her team use statistical shape modelling to quantify morphology of the patellofemoral joint and musculoskeletal modelling to determine the influence of shape on joint function and dysfunction. They leverage developments in artificial intelligence to facilitate data processing and generation of patient specific models and apply these techniques to improve diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of knee musculoskeletal disorders in adolescents.
CSB-SCB Career Award
Sylvie Nadeau
Université de Montréal
Professor Nadeau completed her training in Physiotherapy (1985) and doctorate in the École de réadaptation (1996) at the Université de Montréal (UdeM). She joined the École de réadaptation at UdeM in 1999 as a professor. Professor Nadeau rapidly emerged as one of Canada’s leading researchers in clinical research. Her initial work focused on laboratory-based biomechanical assessment of walking among individuals who have sustained a stroke, with special attention on the determinants and predictors of walking performance. More recently, Professor Nadeau has provided evidence of the determinants and predictors of mobility -related functional activities using new instrumented biomechanical evaluation systems developed at the Pathokinesiology Laboratory. Professor Nadeau has obtained over 70 operating grants and 4 major infrastructure grants, having secured over $38 million in research and network grants. She has authored more than 380 podium and poster presentations and published 171 peer-reviewed articles.
Professor Nadeau has been active in training the next generation of biomechanists and clinicians. Professor Nadeau has trained 112 highly qualify professionals including 9 postdoctoral fellows (all in the field of biomechanics), 13 PhD students (11/13 in the field of biomechanics), 28 MSc research students, 35 MSc final-year physiotherapy students and 27 pre-graduate interns. Collectively, her trainees describe her continuous supportive nature and the fact that she never misses an opportunity to help them reach their goals as admirable qualities.
Professor Nadeau has been a member of the CSB/SCB since 1999 and was on the executive from 2004-2010. She has also contributed to other research organizations. She chaired the Scientific Committee of the Provincial Rehabilitation Research Network (REPAR: 2005-2009) before becoming its Scientific Director (2009-2016). She developed a partnership with the Société Francophone Posture, Équilibre et Locomotion (SOFPEL) and welcomed their annual congress in Montreal in 2019. She sits on the Editorial board of the journal Annals of Physical Rehabilitation Medicine since 2017. She is a fellow from Ordre professionnel de la physiothérapie du Québec and from the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Plenary Lecture: Analyzing the biomechanics of mobility-related functional activities to inform physical rehabilitation
Wednesday August 21, 2024
8:45 - 9:30 am
Recovering a satisfactory level of function is a crucial objective of physical rehabilitation. People affected by illness or trauma strive to regain a good quality of life and social participation. A biomechanical approach, combined with EMG, can support clinical practice by providing clinicians with evidence to optimize their interventions. Together with my colleagues and students, I have dedicated my career to analyzing functional activities related to mobility, addressing clinical questions such as: Why don't post-stroke individuals walk faster? Why do they exhibit asymmetric gait? How can we improve asymmetric weight-bearing when getting up from a chair? What factors facilitate sitting mobility for wheelchair users? Today, projects integrating artificial intelligence with laboratory and clinical data hold the potential to better target the ingredients and types of training that can improve mobility-related functional activities. The future presents significant challenges for the next generation of biomechanics leaders. I am convinced that our field of research will continue to attract the interest of students, and the originality of our work, that of funding organizations.
Récupérer un niveau fonctionnel satisfaisant est un objectif important de la réadaptation physique. Les personnes ayant des atteintes suite à une maladie ou un traumatisme aspirent à retrouver une bonne qualité de vie et participation sociale. L'approche biomécanique combinée à l'EMG peut supporter les pratiques cliniques en fournissant des données probantes aux cliniciens pour qu'ils optimisent leur interventions. Avec mes collègues et étudiants, j'ai dévoué ma carrière à l'analyse des activités fonctionnelles liées à la mobilité en tentant de répondre à des questions cliniques telles que: Pourquoi les personnes post-AVC ne marchent pas plus vite? Pourquoi ont-elles une démarche asymétrique? Comment améliorer l'asymétrie de mise en charge lors du lever d'une chaise? Quels éléments permettent de facilité la mobilité assise des personnes en fauteuil roulant? De nos jours, des projets reliant l'intelligence artificielle, les données de laboratoire et cliniques ont le potentiel d'aider à mieux cibler les ingrédients et types d'entrainement pouvant améliorer les activités fonctionnelles liées à la mobilité. L'avenir réserve de beaux défis à la prochaine génération de leaders en biomécanique. Je suis convaincue que notre domaine de recherche continuera de marquer l'intérêt des étudiants et l'originalité de nos travaux, celui des organismes financiers.
The Canadian Society for Biomechanics is pleased to recognize the finalists for the Graduate Student New Investigator Awards. Two awards will be given to graduate students for high quality biomechanics research submitted for presentation at the biennial conference, the Masters Student Award and the Doctoral Student Award. Both awards are based on the abstract submitted to and the presentation delivered at the 2024 CSB-SCB conference.
Plenary Award Session
Tuesday August 20, 2024
9:15 - 10:45 am
Award Finalists
Doctoral Student Award
Jeff Barrett, University of Waterloo
Nathen Neeteson, University of Calgary
Jackie Zehr, University of Waterloo
Masters Student Award
Carl Alano, Brock University
Faizan Syed, University of Calgary
Paul Tilley, McMaster University