The faculty in the Design and Applied Mechanics Group includes professors who research everything from classical mechanics to state-of-the-art machining processes.
The faculty members are Peter Cripton, Mohamed Gadala, Thomas Oxland, Nimal Rajapakse, Douglas Romilly, Gary Schajer, and Machiel Van der Loos. Some of the projects currently underway are outlined below.
Dr. Peter Cripton — Biomechanics of Human Injury
Current Projects: Modeling spinal injuries to develop a helmet-mounted device preventing spinal injuries incurred in sports and transportation accidents, analyzing mechanisms of hip fracture to identify features predisposed to early fracture, and computational and experimental methods to evaluate performance of implantable spinal devices.
Dr. Mohamed Gadala — Finite Element Applications
Current Projects: Industry solution procedure for crack detection and propagation in rotating components, steel run-out table design, and electric fatigue of piezoelectric actuators.
Dr. Thomas Oxland — Orthopaedic Research
Current Projects: Revision hip replacement, fixation of the osteoporotic spine, regeneration of damaged neural tissue, behaviour of orthopaedic implants, and musculoskeletal tissues.
Dr. Srikantha Phani — Lattice Materials, Nanotubes, Graphene Sheets, and Biomedical Implants
Current Projects: Dynamic Response of Lattice Materials and Structures; Mechanics of Nanotubes and Single Layer Graphene Sheets; Mechanics of stents and stent grafts; Lattice Filters for MEMS Signal Processing.
Dr. Douglas Romilly — Vehicle and Road Safety, Fracture Control
Current Projects: Vehicle occupant dynamics due to rear-end collisions, improving automotive seat design, enhanced side impact protection, application of failure mechanics methods to determine structural integrity of components, assess pressure vessel safety, and life of complex structures, development of tongue force measurement device for diagnosis of dysphagia, upper limb orthosis, an interface pressure transducer for biomedical use.
Dr. Gary Schajer — Measurement of Residual Stresses, Wood Quality Control
Current Projects: Developing methods to measure residual stresses suitable for industry use through ESPI and strain-gauge techniques, developing high-speed scanner to measure surface profile of rapidly moving lumber to enhance cut accuracy, and identifying lumber properties using microwave techniques.
Dr. Machiel Van der Loos — Robotics
Current Projects: Safe design of mobile manipulation robotic systems, exploration of ethical design principles for robot interfaces and neurotechnologies, development and testing or mechatronic exercise systems for stroke therapy.
