Dr. Jae Kun Shim Recieves $200K to Improve Running-specific Prostheses for People with Amputations

Dr. Jae Kun Shim, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, has received a $200,000 grant to study how amputees exercise in their prostheses.

Funded by the Department of Defense, the study will work with individuals with lower-extremity amputations, including U.S. Service members from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), in their efforts.

Few studies have looked into how amputees exercise (particularly how they run) while wearing lower-extremity prostheses. Dr. Shim’s project, entitled “Determining the Marker Configuration and Modeling Technique to Optimize the Biomechanical Analysis of Running-Specific Prostheses,” plans to address that short fall by providing original methods and models for better estimation of joint kinetics and energetics of amputee running.

“These limitations call for systematic research on this topic,” Dr. Shim said, “and improved prosthetic designs that will allow the clinicians to provide evidence-based exercise prescriptions to amputees, enabling them to comfortably and efficiently run.”

Dr. Shim hopes that this research will lead to more well designed prosthetics and exercise regimes for amputees.

A noted expert in biomechanics, neuromechanics and motion control, Dr. Shim serves as Director of the Neuromechanics Laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.