60 Prescott Street (Gateway Park I)

Seminar Series “Levering Foot-Ground Interaction Dynamics for Sports Performance and Gait Rehabilitation” Wouter Hoogkamer, PhD Associate Professor Department of Kinesiology University of Massachusetts Amherst Abstract: Over the past 10 years innovations in running footwear have led to substantial improvements in running performance. While many credit (or blame) carbon-fiber plates for these improvements, a series of studies from our group suggests that innovations in midsole foams are the real hero (or culprit). Seeing what more compliant and resilient midsole foams are doing for running performance, we developed an adjustable surface stiffness treadmill to unilaterally expose people to a compliant surface while walking. Our recent results indicate that asymmetric surface stiffness walking leads to neuromotor adaptation in healthy control participants, which suggests this method can be leveraged to reduce weight-bearing asymmetries in neurological conditions such as people post-stroke. Bio: Wouter Hoogkamer, PhD (he/him) (pronounced “Wow-ter”) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he runs the Integrative Locomotion Laboratory (UMILL). His lab uses a comprehensive approach to study human locomotion, integrating neurophysiology, biomechanics and energetics. His work on running shoes, cooperative drafting and course features might have played a tiny role in how the 2-hour marathon barrier was broken. His lab is currently studying biomechanics and energetics of marathon shoes and track spikes, and locomotor adaptation imposed by robotic footwear, mechatronic treadmills and exoskeletons, to improve gait rehabilitation paradigms. For a zoom link please contact Kate Harrison at kharrison@wpi.edu