MEDIA RELEASE: 1 March 2017 – R00047
A national funding grant awarded to a Brock University researcher Tuesday will be used to help study how people sit, stand and use their muscles on the job.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced Tuesday it has awarded Department of Kinesiology Assistant Professor Michael Holmes a grant of nearly $100,000 through its John R. Evans Leaders Fund to purchase equipment for a new Neuromechanics and Ergonomics lab.
“The equipment is fundamental to everything we do, so the John R. Evans Leaders Fund is a really important program,” Holmes says. “There are very few funding avenues in Canada that allow you to purchase large, expensive pieces of equipment. I’m very thankful for this program.”
With the money, Holmes will be purchasing three sophisticated devices and some smaller equipment to create the lab at Brock.
The first is a motion capture system to record research participants’ postures and body movements as they perform a variety of simulated workplace tasks.
The second is a haptic wrist robot that will allow Holmes’ research team to look at how the forearm muscles control the hand — especially in workplace situations such as when people are holding power tools.
“This device will allow us to better understand how fatigue, pain and/or injury influence performance,” Holmes says.
The third piece is an electromyography system, or EMG, which evaluates and records electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles.
The three machines will give the researchers a complete picture of workplace movement.
“We’ll understand what the muscles do, how people move and what sort of forces they’re interacting with.”
This knowledge, in turn, can be used to better design workplace tools and objects, or change workstations so that workers “interact with the tools differently” to prevent workplace injuries, he says.
Holmes was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Neuromuscular Mechanics and Ergonomics, announced near the end of 2016.
His research examines how the brain and nervous system interact with the mechanics of hand, arm, shoulder and neck muscles as we perform a variety of tasks.
“The hand and upper limb are engineering marvels,” explains Holmes. “Even trivial human-object interactions require a complex series of co-ordinated events from the brain to the start of movement.”
But each person is different. Holmes’ research aims to understand why some people develop carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injury and other upper body injuries while others doing the same job do not develop these injuries.
“This research will lead to workplace and tool design strategies that make occupational tasks safer and more efficient,” says Holmes. “It will impact the lives of working Canadians because work shouldn’t hurt.”
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
* Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970
Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.
– 30 –
